Over the past 16 years Prof. Brian Abbey has been leading the development of new optical technologies for biological imaging employing techniques in coherent optics and nanotechnology. Brian obtained his PhD from Cambridge in 2007 and from 2014-2021 was a node leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging. Brian's group comprises research in the areas of Optics, Nanofabrication, and X-ray science.


Since 2014 Brian has received more than $38 million in external funding as Chief Investigator (CI) from the ARC and NHMRC as well as external research contracts from facilities he manages. From 2014-2018 he was an ARC Future Fellow. In 2017 Brian received the Victorian Young Tall Poppy science award in recognition of his contribution to biophysics and scientific outreach activities. In 2018 he was accepted into the Medtech Actuator program for start-up companies and in 2019 Brian led a multidisciplinary team of researchers to win the national Medtech’s Got Talent (MTGT) award. In 2022 Brian led the team which won both the Australian Museum Eureka prize for the Innovative use of Technology and the Victoria Prize for Physical Sciences. He is the lead inventor on 5 national phase patents (all licensed) since 2017 and is co-founder of AlleSense, an optical biosensing company focused on the point-of-need detection of early-stage cancers.


Brian’s research work in optics has so far produced > 135 research journal articles including having high-impact publications in Nature, Science, Nature Photonics (×2), Nature Physics, Nature Communications (×4), PNAS, Advanced Functional Materials (×2), and Physical Review Letters. Many of his papers have also been highlighted on journal covers. He is well-recognised within his field of optics and biophysics with invitations to give plenary/keynote talks at a number of major conferences (e.g. Gordon Research Conference and SPIE) as well as conference/workshop organisation and international grant reviewing roles (e.g US DoE). He also has an exceptional track-record in using funding to support and mentor young scientists and early career researchers with 12 PhD graduations as primary supervisor over the past four years with 6 current PhD students.

Ali completed his bachelor degree (with honours) in Information Technology from La Trobe University. During and after his study at La Trobe, he worked at the university as lab demonstrator and head tutor for several subjects: information systems development, internet client engineering, and professional environment. He also worked as an industry project supervisor for more than 20 undergraduate and postgraduate graduation projects. During his honours year, he completed a data science industry-based research to improve sales prediction.

In the last eight years, Ali has worked in the analytics field for two major banks in Australia and for government agencies. In 2024, He rejoined La Trobe as an associate lecturer in the IT and Computer science department where he taught "Data Visualisation" subject and supervised master students in their capstone projects (online and on campus).

He is currently completing his PhD study at La Trobe university on part-time basis. His current research topic is in data analytics and time series forecasting.

Dr Lucinda Aberdeen is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow and past Senior Lecturer Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Shepparton campus of La Trobe University in regional Victoria. She has extensive experience as a sociologist conducting, leading and supervising research in areas encompassing ageing, human rights, disability, policy evaluation, racism, assistive technology, youth educational transitions and rural health. Her research focus is critical interpretive inquiry which seeks to understand and address social disadvantage and inequity regionally, nationally and globally. Dr Aberdeen is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Rural Health, School of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Shepparton campus, Victoria.

Ilan is a PhD candidate in the School of Psychology and Public Health. He is researching story-sharing and wellbeing networks in university and community settings. Prior to commencing his research, Ilan worked in arts-based health promotion for twenty years . Collaborating organisations included The Royal Children's hospital, The City of Melbourne, The Royal Botanical Gardens, and many educational institutions.

Dr Victor Abramowicz has worked for over 20 years in the national security sector across government, industry, and academia. He specialises in defence policy and strategy, military technology, security relations in East Asia and Eastern Europe, and military history.

Victor has published opinion pieces for the Lowy and Australian Strategic Policy Institutes which have been noted internationally. He has provided commentary on security issues for television programs including Al Jazeera English and CNBC's Capital Connection, and publications including Bloomberg Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal.

Victor started his career with 13 years in the Australian Department of Defence in a range of intelligence, strategic and international policy and capability development areas. His qualifications include an honours degree in Political Science from the University of Western Australia, a master’s degree in Strategy and Policy from the University of New South Wales, and a Doctorate in International Relations from Curtin University.