Chief Investigators

Lidia Morawska is Distinguished Professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia; the Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT, a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization (WHO); and the Centre Director for the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE) ho sted at QUT. Lidia also holds positions of Vice- Chancellor Fellow, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey, UK; and Adjunct Professor, Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. An author of over 1,000 publication, Lidia has been involved at the executive level with a number of relevant national/international professional bodies, is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and is acting as an advisor to the WHO. She is the recipient of numerous scientific awards.

Lindy Burton is a professionally registered architect, specialised in the design of complex public and institutional buildings and received 15 professional design awards. An Associate Professor of Architecture and the Design for Health program co-leader at QUT, Burton’s commercial research expertise extends her professional practice through integrating biophilic, salutogenic and eudemonic architecture, in complex building environments. She is appointed as a board director of the Board of Architects of Queensland, a referee for the Queensland Development Tribunal, and is the Australian regional editor for the International Journal of Architectural Research (Q1). Burton has strong skills in project managing large, collaborative projects with industry and end-user focus.

Professor Jason Monty is Head of Department and a Professor with the Fluid Mechanics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Melbourne. He is globally recognised for novel experimentation and analysis towards understanding complex air flow patterns that are of critical importance to airborne infectious disease spread. Professor Monty has recently become involved in the fight against airborne transmission in hospitals, developing and commercialising a novel personal ventilation hood for containing virus in infectious hospitalised patients and building a simulation room for indoor airflow studies funded by the Biomedical Translation Bridge Medical Research Future Fund (BTB MRFF) program.

Professor Ristovski is an atmospheric scientist with over 25 years of experience in the general area of aerosol sciences. He is a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and was the inaugural head of school. He is currently the editor in-chief of Atmospheric Environment X. He has supervised over 35 PhD students to completion and published over 270 peer reviewed journal publications related to various aspects of airborne particle pollution andclimate. He is leading a research group of 4 postdoctoral fellows and over 10 postgraduate students. In the past several years he and his team were involved in a number of projects related to airborne infection transmission. His team is investigating what are the key factors influencing airborne virus survival and how this knowledge can be utilised to reduce airborne infection transmissions. He is a recipient of a number of grants both from the Australian government and industry (over $11 million in total) as well as international grants.

Dr. Bo Xia is a Professor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology. His research areas focus on construction management, sustainable buildings, and age-friendly communities and cities.In particular, he received research funding from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Charted Institute ofBuilders (CIOB) and Australian Research Council (ARC) to look into how to provide age-friendly built environment to help older Australians ageing in place. His research findings havebeen published in internationally recognized journals and presented at important conferences. Currently, Prof Xia acts as the editor of International Journal of Construction Management,amember of Editorial Boards for the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, Advancesin Civil Engineering, and Built Environment Project and Asset Management

Professor Geoff Hanmer is the Managing Director of ARINA, a consultancy specialising in educational facilities and particularly the higher education sector. He is also an academic, teaching construction at UTS, where he is a Professional Fellow and at the University of Adelaide where he is an Adjunct Professor. Professor Geoff Hanmer has expertise in research on building construction, integration of engineering sub – systems and the building regulatory framework, including the International Construction Code, the Australian National Construction Code (NCC) and standards.

Guy Marks is a respiratory and public health physician and environmental epidemiologist. He is President and interim Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosisand Lung Disease. He led the Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR, anNHMRC Centre of Research Excellence) from 2012 to 2022. He is now an investigator on the Centre for Safe Air and several other NHMRC CREs. His main research interests are inchronic respiratory disease (asthma and COPD), tuberculosis control and the adverse health effects of exposure to air pollution.

Dr. Richard Brown is a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at QUT, where he leads the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Group and directs the Biofuel Engine Research Facility. He possesses deepexpertise in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer, overseeinga vibrant research community of Research Fellows, postdoctoral researchers, and PhDstudents. Richard’s research has attracted over $6 million in grant funding from industry andcompetitive grants, including eight ARC Linkage and Discovery projects. His work spansemissions dispersion, applied thermodynamics, transport decarbonization, and renewable energy sources. Recognised nationally and internationally, he was elected a Fellowof the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society in 2022. Richard has significantly influenced QUT’s research culture, enhancing its growth and development. He has published over 200 refereed journal papers, cited more than 8,000 times in Scopus, highlighting the substantial impact of his research in the academic community

A/Prof Robyn Schofield’s research involves observing and modelling the composition of air including urban air quality, indoor airborne transmission, ozone formation and loss processes, aerosols and climate interactions. She managed the build of theARC LIEF AIRBOX facility,with multiple University and Industry partners. She is A/Dean of Environment and Sustainability in Science at the University of Melbourne. Since 2020 she has worked with hospital, school and community groups to understand infectious respiratory aerosols and to improve indoor air quality to mitigate transmission.

Sara Omrani is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at QUT. Sara’s background is in Architectural Engineering and her core area of expertise is in the field of building science with a particular focus on natural ventilation, thermal comfort, and the impact of indoor airflow on indoor air quality. Sara has been involved in a wide range of projects including industry and government funded grants and is currently QUT’s research program lead at Building 4.0 CRC.

Tom Rainey is an Associate Professor at QUT in the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering. He performs experimental and techno-economic modelling research related to decarbonisation, clean energy production and filtration problems. He previously worked in the paper industry and has a passion for real-world industry problems. He pioneered cellulose based aerosol filtration technology for high performing facemasks that are easier to breathe through and meet N95 and P2 standards, meaning they are better for the environment than traditional fossil fuel derived masks that leave a waste disposal challenge. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer and a Registered Professional Engineer in Queensland,a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and has a Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice. He manages multidisciplinary industry and research projects with research income of $5.5 million in the past 5 years, over 3500 citations and 15 PhD completions. He is a graduate of chemical engineering at University ofAdelaide and his PhD was completed at QUT.

Dr Miller has initiated and conducted applied socio-technical research in the built environment for 20 years. She specializes in systems-thinking approaches to buildings and energy, encompassing all stakeholders. This has delivered research in a broad range of areas including building passports and mandatory disclosure, building regulations and compliance, energy and comfort ratings, cool roofs, structural insulated panels, natural ventilation performance and stakeholder management. She has a particular interest in residential dwellings and healthcare facilities, as well as concerns about the changing climate and what it means for our built environment and building users. She has contributed to national and international research on resilience, particularly in reference to heat waves and high temperatures.

Professor Alexander Paz is the Transport and Main Roads Chair at the Queensland University of Technology. He is a Chartered Professional and a Fellow Engineer in Australia, a Registered Professional Engineer in Queensland, and a Professional Engineer Licensed in the State of Nevada. Professor Paz has a strong background in transport engineering, travel behavior, transport planning, and road safety. He has significant experience developing methods, algorithms and software tools for the management of highway infrastructure, the analysis and evaluation of transport systems, and the deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems. His work including data warehouses and software applications has been adopted byindustry at an international scale. Two of his inventions are presently being used by industry; one presently patented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A third invention in the field of traffic safety received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and was licensed for commercialization.

Keith Grimwood is an Emeritus Professor of Infectious Diseases at Griffith University and a recently retired paediatric infectious diseases physician at Gold Coast Health. As a clinical researcher, he has published more than 400 papers, book chapters and reports covering respiratory viral and gastrointestinal infections, pneumonia, cystic fibrosis lung disease, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bronchiectasis, meningitis, urinary tract infections and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Prof. Kirsten Spann istheDirector of the Centre for Immunology and Infection Control, Faculty of Health, andalso the Head ofthe Respiratory Virus Research Group.She has been conducting research on respiratory viruses for over 25years. Her researchhas ranged from the development of molecular diagnostics and recombinant vaccine candidates; understanding the role ofviruses in the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and COPD, and also upper respiratory diseases such as otitismedia; and in recent years developing ways to inactivate viruses on surfaces and in aerosols to reduce transmission risk. Herresearch has been funded by the ARC, NHMRC, FluLab USA,and several Hospital Foundations. Her early research was conductedat CSIRO, theNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)in the USA and the Queensland Children’s Hospitalprior to joining QUT in 2015.

Professor Buys is an experienced social researcher and research manager who frequently collaborates with industry partners and scientists from various disciplinary backgrounds on complex challenges and initiatives. Her main expertise and interests fall under the broad headings of social gerontology andhealthy ageing, focusing specifically on issues associated with community engagement, active ageingand aged care workforce. Her research directly explores the understanding of, and accountability for, the real effects felt by older people resulting from changes in their physical, economic and social life. She has long-standing collaborative partnerships with a wide variety of community, industry and government organisations to investigate the dynamics and impacts of ageing within our communities, centered around the belief that positive outcomes be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach and the development of integrated strategies. She has authorship on over 200 refereed publications.

Dr Peter McGarry is part of the Thrive team as a Chief Investigator for the project“Improving The Resilience of Australian Indoor Environments”.Peter has been working in the field of occupational health and hygiene for over 30 years, in both the private and government sectors. He has certified occupational hygienist status with the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists and specialises in risk management of hazards such as asbestos, hazardous chemicals, noise, vibration, lead, radiation, heat stress, airborne contaminants, biological hazards and leads a team of occupational hygiene and health practitioners at the University ofQueenslandwho also specialise in these hazards. Prior to that Peter worked for 21 years with the Queensland work healthand safety regulator. He has completed a Diploma in Health Science, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Health and Safety, a Post-Graduate Diploma(Occupational Hygiene)and a Masters in Applied Science (Occupational Health and Safety).