PhD, which focused on the neuroendocrine control of prolactin secretion, was completed at UQ in 2000. Since then her research interests have switched to science education and now include the development of effective assessment and feedback, science communication, and the design and use of inquiry-based classes to aid critical thinking skills. She has considerable experience both teaching physiology and curriculum design, playing a major role in the introduction and implementation of inquiry-based laboratory classes in the biomedical science curriculum at UQ.

Prof Rob Parton

Plasma membrane and caveolae

Robert Parton studied biochemistry in the UK before moving to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. He received Royal Society and EMBO postdoctoral fellowships before becoming a junior group leader in 1990 studying plasma membrane domains and cell surface dynamics. In1996, he moved to the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He is currently a group leader in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis. His research has focussed on the dynamics and domain structure of the plasma membrane and has been highly cited (H-index 91). He was involved in the discovery of caveolin-1 and the muscle-specific caveolin isoform, caveolin-3. He is currently using a number of experimental systems (including cultured cells, zebrafish, and mice) to understand how caveolae form, to dissect the structure of caveolae and caveolins, and to investigate the role of caveolae in health and in disease. In 2009 he was elected to the Australian Academy of Science. He is currently an