Academics

Dr Jamie Fellows is the acting Dean of the College of Business, Law and Governance at James Cook University. His previous roles at JCU include Head of Law, Director of the JCU Tax Clinic, Coordinator of the Work Integrated Learning Program for Law, and Honours Coordinator for Law. Dr Fellows' research interests span various areas of law and ethics, with a focus on youth justice, criminal sentencing, and war crimes. His PhD research examined the US Army war crimes trials of Japanese defendants in Manila following World War II. On a national level, Dr Fellows is actively involved in legal education, serving as a member of the Council of Australian Law Deans and the Regional Law Assistance Forum in Queensland. He sits on a number of University level committees, including the Curriculum Management, Research, and Teaching and Learning Committees.

Dr. Jacob Wood is currently the Associate Dean of Research at JCU's Singapore campus and an Associate Professor of International Business. Dr. Wood specializes in the fields of international trade negotiation and the effect of non-tariff barriers on international trade flows. Dr. Wood's research interests focus on issues in the fields of transportation economics and management, development and environmental economics, and international trade. With a PhD in International Studies majoring in International Trade, Dr. Wood also has more than 10 years experience working in South Korea where he held roles as an Assistant Professor at Korea University of Technology and Education and then more recently as an Assistant Professor of Asia Business and International Trade at Chungnam National University.

Associate Professor K Thirumaran is a tourism and hospitality management specialist with James Cook University Singapore. He is the key organizer of the World Luxury Destinations conference 2018 and coined the term affinity tourism. Thiru’s research focuses on service excellence, cultural and luxury tourism. He is interested in questions related to modern developments and their impact on emerging destinations’ cultural values and the use of virtual and augmented reality to improve training programs in the industry. Some of the major projects that he is working on are related to MICE activities in emerging economies, service expectations in rural tourism, the value of tourism in the few remaining socialist-leaning states, and luxury travel experiences.

Dr Sizhong Sun is currently an associate professor at College of Business, Law and Governance, Division of Tropical Environments and Societies, James Cook University. He holds PhD in Economics from the Australian National University, Australia, Master in Economics from Xiamen University, China, and Bachelor of Arts from Jilin University of Technology, China. Dr Sun joined James Cook University in 2008, and since then he has been actively engaged in teaching a number of economics subjects and researching in the broad areas of empirical international trade, empirical industrial organisation, economic development, and market design, with a focus on foreign direct investment and Chinese economy, where Dr Sun has published extensively.

Dr Song received his PhD in Computer Science from The University of Queensland. He has more than 30 years of industry experience in the field of AI, machine learning, embedded system design, industrial control system design, signal processing, patent analysis, and multimedia/game software development. Dr Song was awarded a prestigious international grant from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to work on mobile applications for providing “Early Child Health Intervention Using Breathing Sound.” in 2011. He has over 100 publications in journals, books, and conference articles and several patent applications. He has also pioneered micro-projects at JCU creating over 1,500 learning contents designed and created with students and industry partners. Now, he has over 1 million education games that are generated using new AI algorithms and handcrafted learning contents, graphic designs, and game mechanics.

Dr Breda McCarthy is a Senior Lecturer of Marketing in the Department of Economics and Marketing at James Cook University. Her research lies at the intersection of consumer behaviour, ethics, sustainability, and marketing practice, with a focus on understanding why consumers engage in sustainable and pro-environmental behaviours. Her previous work has explored key issues such as food waste, consumer trust in corporate sustainability claims amid 'green-washing' concerns, the adoption of electric vehicles and rooftop solar, and the acceptance of sustainable packaging. This body of research addresses critical topics aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr Caroline Wong is an Associate Professor in business at JCU Singapore. She completed her PhD in international business at the Australian National University and the focus of her thesis was on managing the intangible resources and competencies that have increasingly become sources of competitive advantage in the creative cultural industries such as the film industry. Her research in knowledge management examines knowledge flows within and across industries with particular focus on Singapore. Her research publication topics have examined critically Singapore’s developmental approaches in transiting from a manufacturing/trade-dependent economy to a creative economy (with focus on creative industries) and smart city with focus on digital and knowledge-driven economy.

Dr. Thanh Nguyen is a Lecturer of Business at JCUS. She received her PhD in Banking and Finance from Griffith University, Australia in 2016. Before she joined JCUS, Dr. Thanh was a lecturer of Finance at Vietnamese-German University and a Manager of Trade Finance Department of PVBank (headquarter) in Vietnam. Dr. Thanh’s main research area includes banking performance and stock price forecasts. She focuses on the impacts of bank reforms, diversification, competition, and innovation on bank efficiency, profitability, and risk. She also does research on factors driving stock price. Her work has been published in top-tier journals, such as Empirical Economics, Applied Economics, Australian Economic Papers, Managerial Finance, Benchmarking, International Journal of Finance and Economics, etc.

Dr. Huiping Zhang is an Associate Professor of Business at JCUS. She received her PhD in Finance from National University of Singapore in 2011. Before she joined ICUS, Dr. Zhang was an Associate Professor of Finance at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in China. Dr. Zhang’s research area includes empirical asset pricing, market microstructure, international stock markets and machine learning. She focuses on the effects of liquidity on stock returns and the measurement of liquidity in emerging markets. She also does research on the impact of media coverage on stock liquidity and returns in China stock market. Her work has been published in top-tier finance journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Financial Review and International Review of Finance.

Dr. Tang has been actively conducting research into the impact and applications of digital technology in education, including topics such as digital literacy, learning management systems, and learning environments. He has received research grants, published journal papers, conference papers, and book chapters, as well as edited various books. Dr. Tang has taught business and information technology courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. To enhance learning delivery, he continues to keep abreast of the latest developments in business and information technology. He also has many years of experience supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students in their dissertations.

Dr Zilmiyah Kamble works with James Cook University, Singapore as a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality and Tourism management. Her International Academic and Tourism Industry work experience spans over five different countries (UK, Seychelles, India, Malaysia and currently Singapore). Her teaching and curriculum development expertise is diverse ranging from operations to management perspectives in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr Zilmiyah has a PhD in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Taylor’s University, Malaysia, a Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard University and over 13 years of international teaching experience. She has served as a chair for Board of Studies, led curriculum development in Tourism, Hospitality and Events at various institutions and consulted for training initiatives at the Seychelles Ministry of Tourism.

Dr. Stéphane Le Queux is Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Townsville, Research Fellow Cairns Institute, at JCU Australia, and CITBA, Singapore. He is Professor at the Department of Industrial Relations, Laval University, Québec, and at Tahiti Business School (adjunct positions). He holds research fellowships in New Zealand, MPOWER, Massey University, Work Research Institute, AUT, and CRIMT, Canada.

Dr SingWhat Tee is currently a Senior Lecturer in the College of Business, Law and Governance at the James Cook University. His research spins across information systems, business, and management. His research focus on the area of business value deliverance, electronic commerce, social networks, and digital leadership. Before joining James Cook University, he had worked as system designer, system auditor, and strategic planning consultant at the Central Bank of Malaysia for more than 15 years. His current research interests focus on the impact of information systems on global citizens and their environments, the delivery of business value through digital technologies, the evolving role of electronic commerce and social networks, and the influence of digital leadership and information technology on knowledge transfer and digital transformation.

Associate Professor Riccardo Welters is an academic researcher with experience in conducting applied labour market research; attracting competitive funding (both research and consultancy oriented); and lecturing in a broad scale of economics subjects at university level. He is also Theme Leader ‘Sustainable Development’ at the Cairns Institute, JCU. Associate Professor Welters graduated in economics from Maastricht University in 1997, including a semester at the University of Trento, Italy, as an Erasmus exchange student. He completed a PhD in economics from Maastricht University in 2005 studying employer recruitment behaviour re the long-term unemployed.

Originally from Genoa (Italy) but based in Singapore since 2005, Dr Roberto Dillon holds a PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa and a postgraduate level certificate in Cybersecurity from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the author of five books published by AKPeters, CRC Press and Springer, besides several book chapters and papers published in peer-reviewed conference proceedings and journals. A speaker at the leading game industry conferences around the world (GDC in San Francisco, Game Connection in Paris, CGDC in Shanghai, GMGC in Beijing etc.) as well as at more general events (TEDx in Milan, Wired in Manila etc.), Dr. Dillon is an IEEE Senior Member and (ISC)2 Professional Member with cross-disciplinary research interests spanning different areas including serious games (health, training), virtual and augmented reality, machine learning, history of technology, affective computing, behavioral analytics and cybersecurity.

Associate Professor Dr Jarvis is an environmental economist with an emerging record of research accomplishments in the study of social and economic aspects of environmental/natural resource management, focusing primarily on investigating and evaluating trade-offs and co-benefits arising from natural resource use/environmental conservation and economic development within northern Australia, involving cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary and cross institutional collaborations.

Dr Tolkach is an Associate Professor in Tourism and Hospitality Management at James Cook University, Cairns. He teaches various subjects in Bachelor of Tourism, Hospitality and Events and Masters of International Tourism & Hospitality Management. Prior to joining James Cook University in 2020, Dr Tolkach has worked as an Assistant Professor at School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr Tolkach has earned a PhD degree at Victoria University, Melbourne in 2013. The topic of his thesis was Community-based tourism in Timor-Leste: A collaborative network approach. Dr Tolkach research interests are predominantly within areas of sustainable tourism: ethics of tourism, community-based tourism, nature-based tourism, cultural tourism, regenerative tourism, tourism in Southeast Asia and in Small Island Developing States.

Diana is an Economics Lecturer at the College of Business, Law and Governance at James Cook University. Her teaching experience in the higher education sector spans ten years across both undergraduate and postgraduate offerings. Diana is a recipient of the Sessional Staff Teaching Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for the years 2010 and 2019 at JCU.

Dr Kym Davis is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the College of Business, Law and Governance and sessional lecturer in management. Her interests span human resources, leadership and organisational behaviour. With a broad range of experience in the business sector Dr Davis is a pracademic working across industry and academia.  Passionate about advancing employee engagement strategies, Dr. Davis is currently extending her research on shared services, with her project supported by the prestigious 2024 AHRI Scholarship. Dr. Davis's work aligns with her commitment to enhancing organisational performance and leadership practices in dynamic and evolving business environments.

Dr. Li Xian Liu transitioned to an academic career after earning a PhD in Finance and Economics from RMIT University in December 2011, supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship. Before joining James Cook University (JCU), Dr. Liu taught and coordinated both undergraduate and postgraduate finance courses, including MBA programs, at several Australian universities, such as Australian National University, University of Canberra, University of South Australia, and Curtin University.