Physical Sciences staff
Professor Ron White
Head of Physical Sciences
Ron White is a physicist. He leads the Rapid Assessment Unit - a JCU/QDAFF joint venture focused on rapid non-destructive NIR spectroscopy assessment in primary industries.
Dr. Mark C. Barnes
Lecturer, Chemistry
Mark specialises in physical chemistry, particularly in examining chemical reactions/processes. He administers the first year subjects in chemistry and is the point of contact for all first year chemistry students.
Associate Professor Shaun Belward
Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching. Mathematics
Shaun is interested in the role of mathematics and mathematicians in interdisciplinary pursuits in education such as collaboration in learning and teaching for science and engineering students and teacher education.
Dr Sara Brice
Lecturer, Biomechanics
Sara's research focuses on performance enhancement in elite sport, injury prevention, and wearable technology. She also undertakes research in the area of pedagogical practices with a focus on assisting students with numeracy.
Sourav Das
Statistician
Sourav Das has broad interests in modelling and methodology, spatial statistics and time series. He teaches Data Science at JCU and also provides statistical consultancy for clinical science researchers.
Dr Murray Davies
Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry. Course Coordinator for Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics
Murray is an inorganic chemist. His research interests are in coordination chemistry of the d- group metals and its application to biology, medicine, catalysis and in magnetic materials.
Carolyn Diedricks
Chemical Engineer, Maths Lecturer
Carolyn's focus areas are Maths, Stats, Transition Pedagogy, FYE, Reflective Practice, and motivating students to succeed in Maths subjects as a foundation for Engineering and STEM careers.

Associate Professor Yvette Everingham
Statistician. Promotional Chair
Yvette is dedicated to identifying strategies that will deliver better learning and teaching outcomes in interdisciplinary science education, and using Big Data Analytics to enhance the sustainability of agricultural systems.
Carla Ewels
Lecturer in Statistics and Data Science
Carla has strong interests in statistical modelling and methods, particularly in the Bayesian framework. To date, she has worked in the field of marine and medical research, genetics, agriculture and fisheries.
Associate Professor Scott Heron
Physics
Scott Heron's researches coastal and near-shore environmental physics, involving the synthesis of physical information with the biological and/or chemical characteristics of the environment.
Patrick Higgins
Lecturer, Mathematician
Patrick’s research extends to the Flow Over Topography and numerical solutions to partial differential equations, seepage through porous media, teaching technologies and learning strategies for mathematics education.
Professor Peter Junk
Nevitt Professor of Chemistry
Peter's research interests involve many aspects of inorganic and organometallic chemistry of the main group and lanthanoid elements, in particular organometallic and amido complexes.
Associate Professor Daniel Kosov
Chemical Physics
Daniel's researches theoretical and computational chemical physics with applications to material science, nanotechnology, and biology. He develops new conceptual theoretical approaches as well as computer codes for modelling real systems.
Associate Professor Mike Liddell
Environmental Chemist. Head of Discipline – Chemistry
Mike's current research interests are broadly in environmental science. He runs the TERN Rainforest Ecosystem Process site at Robson Creek and is also active in two TERN sites in the Daintree. In addition he works in the lab on peptide toxins.
Dr Yang Liu
Lecturer, Chemistry
Yang’s research interests are primarily in the exploration of innovative analytical technologies based on electrochemical reactions, including application of nanomaterials for label-free sensor devices.
Dr D'Arcy Mullamphy
Senior Lecturer, Mathematics
D'Arcy has recently moved his research focus from physics to mathematics education. D'Arcy has a keen interest in teaching and has received two ALTC citations as well as a JCU excellence in teaching award.
Associate Professor Michael Oelgemöller
Organic and Medicinal Chemist
Michael's research includes the synthesis of bioactive compounds, the solar production of commodity chemicals from biomass, the development of new photochemical synthesis tools and light-driven water treatment.
Dr Mark Payne
Lecturer, Chemistry
Mark is currently teaching both these subjects at the University. His particular interests and expertise lie with laser spectroscopy, molecular dynamics, molecular kinetics and photonics.
Dr Mark Robertson
Senior Lecturer, Chemistry
Mark has worked on medicinal chemistry projects including antibiotics, chemotherapeutics and epilepsy treatments. His research interests include the use of flow chemistry and using solar power to drive chemical reactions.
Dr Kelly Trinh
Associate Lecturer, Statistics and Data Science
Kelly's research areas focus on Bayesian statistical modelling, time series, state-space models and high dimensional data. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing machine learning algorithms in finance and health systems.
Dr Martijn van de Pol
Senior lecturer Biomathematical modelling
Martijn combines modelling and field studies to understand how wildlife copes with our rapidly changing environment. He specializes in the impacts of sea level rise, global warming, human disturbance and predators on population numbers.

Dr Lauren Waszek
Physicist, JCU Townsville, Bebegu Yumba campus, Douglas
Dr Waszek has an ARC DECRA Fellowship and her focal area is the physics of seismology of Earth's deep interior from the inner core to the upper mantle.
Greg Boyle
Greg's research focuses on theoretical and computational plasma physics. He is interested in modeling electron and positron transport in gases and liquids, as well as plasma applications for next-generation compact particle-accelerators.
Research and adjunct staff
Dr Daniel Cocks
Adjunct Physicist
Daniel is currently working with the group of Professor Ron White to develop models for electrons, positrons and positronium propagating through liquids for use in medical diagnostics and therapy.

Dr Rosalind Gummow
Adjunct Research Fellow
Rosalind’s research interests lie in the understanding of the structure-property relationships of transition metal oxides, sulphides and silicates, with particular emphasis on energy storage materials.
Professor Shaik Hakeem
Adjunct Professor
Shaik has research interests in meteorology, climate change and modelling.
Dr David Kault
Adjunct Senior Lecturer
To download PDS (Public Domain Statistics) a free, easy to use, stand alone, basic statistics package (for WinPC only), written to accompany my book "Statistics with Common Sense", click here (Version 1.01).

Adjunct Emeritus Professor Richard Keene
Chemistry, Centre for Molecular Therapeutics
Professor Keene's laboratory has been an international pioneer in the development of techniques to control the stereochemistry of the component metal centres in mononuclear and oligonuclear metal complexes.
Professor Robert Robson
Physicist and Meteorologist
Robson's research on gases, plasmas, condensed matter and boundary-layer meteorology has been supported by the ARC, the Humboldt Foundation, the Hitachi Corporation, and the Academy of Science.
Dr James Whinney
Senior Research Officer
Senior Research Officer with the Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research. Teaches Oceanography and Meteorology and Sensors and Sensing for Scientists.
Shamshad Karatela
Research Fellow
Shamshad is an environmental and public health researcher with interests in chemical exposures, bio-monitoring, infectious diseases, and climate impacts on health.
Professor Ian Whittingham
Adjunct Professor, Physicist
Ian's theoretical physics research interests cover elementary particles, astroparticle physics and cosmology, atomic physics and astronomy.