Carmen is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research. She is passionate about understanding why young people start using substances and dedicated to advance public health through her research. She leads a research program focused on the etiology of youth vaping and drug use, using social media data for surveillance to track trends and tackle emerging challenges.

Carmen is also interested in exploring the disparities in substance use in low- and middle-income countries where she aims to deepen her understanding of substance use patterns and develop effective preventative initiatives, striving to create equitable solutions that address the unique challenges faced in these region.

Dr Ji Moon is a respiratory staff specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. Dr Moon has a special interest in lung cancer care. He runs lung nodule clinic and chairs lung nodule MDT and is an active member of lung cancer MDT at St Vincent’s Hospital. He regularly performs bronchoscopy for lung cancer diagnosis and staging. He is currently working to expand bronchoscopy service at St Vincent’s Hospital to improve diagnostic accuracy of early-stage lung cancer.

Slade holds the following qualifications: BmedSc(Hons), PhD, DipEd, GradCertEd(HigherEd).

His honours thesis work involved the investigation of the toxicological components of the venom of the Australian Copper Head snake through the use of HPLC and pharmacological bioassays. His PhD work investigated the application of machine learning techniques to clinical information, assisted reproduction treatment based on patient and treatment factors and histological information, the classification of retinal nerve cells based on the analysis of microscopic shape factors.

Slade is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Toxicologists and Risk Assessors (ACTRA) and a member of the Board of the Australasian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT). His teaching and research in the Sydney Pharmacy School at the University of Sydney focusses on toxicology. His research employs artificial intelligence with techniques including deep learning and other machine learning techniques combined with chemical data such as quantum molecular calculations and bioassay data to understand the chemical properties that lead to toxic effects.

Professor Wheate completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with 1st class honours from the University of New South Wales whilst at the Australian Defence Force Academy (1998) before he completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in medicinal chemistry under Professor J. Grant Collins (2002). He has since been awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 2020 and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2021 both from The University of Sydney.

Since completing his PhD in 2002, he has worked in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at Western Sydney University (2005-2007) and the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science in Scotland (2007-2011) before taking up a position in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2012. During this time, he held roles as Program Director of the pharmacy undergraduate degrees, Head of Cancer Research, and MPharm Director.

Currently he is a professor in the School of National Sciences at Macquarie University.

Dr Barbara Murphy (PhD, BA Hons) has over 30-year career in psychosocial and behavioural research, program development and program evaluation. Most of Dr Murphy’s work has focussed on psychocardiology, particularly the psychosocial and mental health impacts of cardiac disease. She has undertaken numerous longitudinal studies and randomised controlled trial to investigate the prevalence and predictors of post-cardiac event mental health problems, and the benefits of interventions to support cardiac patients and their families. She initiated the Cardiac Blues Program and her recent work has focussed on the psychosocial and mental health impacts of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). She is also involved in the management of the ACHH’s Cardiac Counselling Clinic which provides psychological counselling to Australia’s cardiac patients and their families, including those with SCAD.

Dr Murphy has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and has delivered over 50 presentations at national and international conferences, including several recent publications and presentations on the psychosocial impacts of SCAD.

Professor Graham received his training in medicine at the University of New South Wales (MB,BS Hons, 1972; MD, 1988), St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and Sydney Hospital (FRACP, 1979) and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (UTSWMS), Dallas, Texas (FRCP, 1981). He was appointed as Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, UTSWMS (Alfred Gilman, Chairman, Nobel Laureate) in 1978, and Associate Professor in Medicine, Cellular and Molecular Research Laboratory (Edgar Haber, Chairman), Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (1982).

In 1988, he undertook a sabbatical working with H. Gobind Khorana (Nobel Laureate) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1989, he was appointed as Robert C. Tarazi Chairman, Department of Molecular Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio. After 17 years in the US, he returned to Australia in 1994 as the inaugural Executive Director of Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Professor of Medicine at UNSW. In 2003, he was appointed the Des Renford Professor of Medicine at UNSW (2003).

A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS; 2002), a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2014), and a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (2010), his research for many years has focused on molecular cardiology, with emphasis on circulatory control mechanisms, hypertension, receptor signalling and cardiac hypertrophy. More recently, his work has focussed on cardiac regeneration and cardioprotection, and spontaneous coronary artery dissection. He is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed papers that have received over 20,000 citations. He is co-founder and director of Infensa Bioscience Pty Ltd, and is currently the Vice-President of the Australian Academy of Science and Secretary of Biological Sciences.

Sanjay Ramakrishnan is an internationally recognised expert in respiratory medicine, particularly in asthma and COPD clinical trials. His work in biomarker guided asthma and COPD attack treatments have been included in guidelines around the world. His work has also delivered the first new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years. Sanjay Ramakrishnan completed his medical school at UWA. He then completed his specialty training in respiratory medicine in Western Australia, before starting his PhD. For his PhD, he was based at the Nuffield Department of Experimental Medicine at the University of Oxford. He also worked as a Lecturer in Physiology at St Peter’s College, Oxford. Sanjay is now leading the Perth Exacerbation Research (PER) group at the Institute for Respiratory Health, UWA. He also works as a senior lecturer at the UWA Medical School. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Sanjay leads the asthma and COPD clinics at the quarternary respiratory medicine clinic at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Western Australia. Sanjay Ramakrishnan is also active in editorial work. He is the current associate editor for COPD for the journal Respirology. He is also a member of the COPD editorial boards at The American Journal of Respiratory and Criticial Care Medicine and Chest. In 2023, he was highlighted as the top young COPD researcher to watch for the next decade by the journal, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Professor Glen Maberly is a Senior Staff Specialist Endocrinologist at Blacktown and Mt Druitt Hospitals, and the Director Western Sydney Diabetes at Western Sydney Local Health District. Currently Glen is the driving force behind the Western Sydney Diabetes (WSD), to address the epidemic of diabetes in greater western Sydney, where it is estimated that more than 50 per cent of its residents are overweight or obese, and at high risk of diabetes. WSD work includes primary and secondary prevention as well as building the capacity of general practice and community to better manage diabetes. It also includes developing a comprehensive array of digital solutions relevant to this application. Previously, Glen was the founding Executive Director of the Iodine Network, the Flour Fortification Initiative and Rice Fortification Network working with the UN organisations, Global Public Health organisations and agro business to reduce the global burden of vitamin and mineral deficiency in over 120 countries around the world. Throughout his career, Prof Maberly has focused on fostering public-private-civic partnerships and bring public health evidence based research findings to large scale implementation.

Dan McLaughlin is a Brisbane neurologist and epileptologist. He worked in Professor Mervyn Eadie’s Neuropharmacology unit developing an interest in the pharmacology of antiseizure medications. This led to the opportunity to participate as a clinical investigator in a number of international multicentre clinical trials of emerging antiseizure drugs. Currently he is chair of the Epilepsy Society of Australia’s Drugs and Devices sub-committee.

Mr Osama Elsewaisy is an experienced Orthopaedic Surgeon who treats conditions affecting the hip and knee. He regularly performs: • Hip replacement (Anterior and posterior approaches) • Knee replacement (partial, total and robotic) • Arthroscopic knee surgery, including ACL reconstruction Osama has a public appointment at St. Vincent’s in Fitzroy, and works privately in East Melbourne, Kew, Box Hill and Mulgrave.