Team

Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen is a Professor of Statistics at QUT and an Australian Laureate Fellow. Her focus is on using and developing new statistical and computational methods that can help to solve complex problems in the real world. These problems are in the fields of environment, health and medicine, and industry. Acknowledged to be an international research leader in her discipline, her specific research areas include Bayesian statistical modelling, computational methods and applications, spatial and space-time analyses. In 2016, Kerrie was awarded the Pitman Medal, the highest honour to be presented by the Statistical Society of Australia and the first woman to receive it.

Professor Baade is a Senior Research Fellow at the Cancer Council Queensland where he manages the Descriptive Epidemiology Research Program. His primary research interests are to describe the patterns of cancer-related outcomes both nationally and internationally, and specifically to better understand why these outcomes depend on where people live and the role of remoteness, area disadvantage and ethnicity on these patterns. His work has directly informed government strategic policy in reducing cancer inequalities based on residential location. Peter is an Accredited Statistician with the Statistical Society of Australia and has Academic and Adjunct appointments with several universities.

Dr Cramb is a biostatistician skilled in using complex modelling techniques to investigate the spatial and spatio-temporal patterns of diseases, risk factors and outcomes in Queensland and across Australia. Her primary research interest is in using complex models to understand how cancer outcomes vary by location. Susanna has worked in epidemiological research for over a decade, holds adjunct appointments at QUT and Menzies School of Health Research, and is a Sub Technical Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics. Susanna’s research has also been used by Queensland Health in setting their cancer care objectives.

Dr Duncan’s research to date has largely been focused on developing Bayesian models for analysing spatial data, particularly in the field of epidemiology and small-area analysis. He previously worked as a biostatistician for the Wesley Medical Research Institute, and is accustomed to working with sensitive unit record data.

Professor Aitken is Head of Research and Director of the Queensland Cancer Registry and the Australian Childhood Cancer Registry at Cancer Council Queensland. She is a distinguished research scientist who has worked in the field of cancer epidemiology for the past 25 years. Joanne sits on management and advisory groups for cancer registration and surveillance, cancer in adolescents and young adults, and cancer service quality and safety. She is the elected regional representative for Oceania on the Executive Board of the International Association of Cancer Registries, and sits on the Executive of the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries.

Dr Upeksha Chandrasiri is project manager for the Australian Cancer Atlas study and also works as a data analyst in the Cancer Epidemiology Team at Viertel Cancer Research Centre, Cancer Council Queensland. Upeksha is responsible for managing ethics and data custodian approvals for the Cancer Atlas from each state and territory in Australia, reporting progress and responding to queries related to the study.

Bill Watson has twenty years of experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with particular focus on administrative boundaries. In the last five years he has specialised in the geographic aspects of health performance reporting including cartography, data visualisation and web development. His current role is at the AIHW working in the Health Performance and Accountability Framework Group as the Unit Head of Research and Analysis.

Jessie Roberts works at the interface between ACEMS academics and industry. She holds a Bachelor of Biotechnology Innovation (Honors) and is currently completing an MPhil in Applied Statistics, which is investigating the communication of statistical uncertainty to non-expert audiences.

Dr White is a research fellow with the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation and is a member of the School of Public Health and Social Work at QUT. She has developed expertise in applied statistics through a number of collaborative research projects, in the areas of spatial epidemiology, statistical genetics and health services research. Her current research focuses on evidence generation around the translation of genomics into clinical decision making and cancer care. She also serves on the executive committee for the Queensland branch of the Statistical Society of Australia.

Jad has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Science and GIS. He has worked in software development for over 20 years including 11 years as the lead developer and solution architect of the first cloud based platform for the Australian training industry. Since joining the Cancer Council Queensland in 2013 Jad has designed and built a variety of applications in research, digital and back end systems as the Solutions Delivery Lead.

Justin graduated from QUT in mid 2017 with a Bachelor of Business (Finance) / Bachelor of Information Technology (Computer Science). Since graduating he has been working at Cancer Council Queensland as a Digital Developer and has enjoyed contributing to a variety of projects. Justin is passionate about web development with a particular interest in the Front End and UX.

Thom Saunders is a senior user experience designer with over 20 years of hands-on experience in UX/UI design, concept development, creative direction for rich internet applications across multiple digital platforms. Strong emphasis on user centric design processes to deliver consistent user experiences that meet functional and business requirements. Thom is the founder of the award winning Interactive Data Visualisation Company, ZONE4 – http://www.zone4.com.au.

Gavin is the manager of the Visualisation and eResearch team at IFE. Gavin was the Project Manager for The Cube during its design, engineering, and implementation and maintains a key role in the strategic planning of The Cube and QUT’s technology research and development capacity.

He consults regularly to organisations and companies seeking to develop these technologies for their own purposes and is a regular speaker at industry forums and trade events. Gavin has extensive and varied experience in the design and implementation of technology projects, working in university, telecommunications, resources, property, and computer entertainment sectors.

Sarah Quijano is the user experience and interaction designer in the ViseR team at IFE. She specialises in conceptualising and designing user interfaces and digital assets for interactive scenarios and implementation.

Sarah is responsible for the production of quality user experience and interaction elements. She has a strong background in designing for print and digital platforms, and holds focus in creating an aesthetically bold visual experience through the design process.

Ben is a software engineer with a passion for UX and a creative flair. He specialises in web, mobile and integrated systems. With 10 years of commercial experience under his belt, most recently as lead developer for a leading digital agency in Brisbane, he has a proven record delivering large projects for big name clients in commercial, education and entertainment industries.

Allan is a software developer within the ViseR team at IFE. He specialises in software development with experience in visualisation, interaction devices and displays, VR/AR, system design, and web and database technologies. Allan has worked with researchers and clients from a wide range of industries and disciplines, developing software for interactive 2D and 3D visualisation, and animation of scientific data and development of dynamic web-based systems for data capture, retrieval and display.

Tim is a senior software engineer in the ViseR team at IFE. He has a strong high-performance computing background and extensive experience with clustered and distributed computing and visualisation systems in both academic and professional environments.

Tim was the lead software and systems engineer for The Cube installation at QUT’s Science and Engineering Centre, responsible for the day to day management of the research and development lab for prototyping Cube visualisation and interaction technologies as well as designing and implementing unique software APIs and tools to expedite content development and delivery.

Michael is a software developer within the ViseR team of the Institute for Future Environments while completing Bachelor degrees in both Computer Science and Interactive and Visual Design at QUT. He specialises in web applications full-stack development with a focus towards front-end development, user interaction and experience design. As a recent member to the ViseR team, Michael has worked with an array of researchers and industry professionals assisting in the development of a variety of data visualisation projects.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Economics from Monash University. Her strong data analysis and statistical visualisation skills contributed to different aspects of the Cancer Atlas. She intends to undertake a MPhil to focus on developing and applying good practice and novel methods for visualisation of geospatial and temporal disease data.

Dr Sarah Goodwin has a background in spatial data analysis and geographical information visualisation. Sarah has 15 years of experience in the data domain, working in the areas of information visualisation, data science, analytics, geospatial analysis and interaction design. Sarah’s research interests are in the application of novel visualisations for complex spatio-temporal data sets, user-centred visualisation design methodologies and exploring visual solutions for analytical insights and knowledge discovery.

Professor Di Cook researches methodology and builds software for statistical graphics, and exploratory data analysis. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, elected Ordinary Member of the R Foundation and Editor of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. Publications include methods for interactive graphics with spatial data, and glyph-map displays for for spatiotemporal data, created using linear algebra. She is very interested in working on real problems, and excited to be involved with building an Australian Cancer Atlas.

Paula Fiévez is the Health Program Director for FrontierSI (formerly CRC for Spatial Information), a collaborative research organisation that provides the infrastructure that enable collaborative, cross-sectoral spatial research to tackle problems of national importance.  Paula navigated early stage funding and contract negotiations with the multiple parties contributing to the Australian Cancer Atlas.  She also played a brokering role for the project team by sourcing expertise to deliver project outcomes and ensuring expectations were appropriately managed.  Paula is an experienced operations manager with a special interest in health services management and is keen to see Australian Cancer Atlas extended over time in order to better understand and address the geographical disparities of cancer incidence and survival across Australia.