Dr Stuart Batten, Monash University, works as a chemist and a "crystal engineer". Crystal engineering involves the design and analysis of crystal structures, with the aim of understanding and controlling the way molecules pack together in solids. The arrangement of molecules in solids has a big effect on their physical and chemical properties. In particular, he is currently trying to design new materials which show a large range of useful properties, such as magnetism, the ability to switch between two states, and the absorption of large amounts of gas, such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane.

Dr Rachel Caruso, University of Melbourne, is a Materials Chemist where she applies her chemical knowledge to produce novel advanced materials with specific and improved properties. Some of her projects focus on the conversion of sunlight into electrical energy, water purification, and the removal of heavy metals or radioactive nuclei from nuclear waste.
Rachel worked at the Hahn-Meitner Institute and then the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, both in Germany, where she led an international team of scientists.

Dr Rony Duncan, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, researches the ethical implications of science, with a particular focus on the use of empirical methods for informing bioethical debates. During her PhD, Rony researched the implications of predictive genetic testing in young people. Her research involved interviews with teenagers and young adults who had undergone genetic tests for Huntington Disease.

Dr Andrew Hill, Bio21 Institute and University of Melbourne heads a laboratory focussing on a group of neurodegenerative disorders known as prion diseases. These diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or ‘mad-cow' disease) in cattle. Andrew believes there is still a great deal to learn about these diseases thus providing amazing opportunities for scientific discovery.

Dr Shane Huntington, University of Melbourne, is a Founder and the Managing Director of The Innovation Group Pty Ltd, a Victorian based company set up in 2000 to assist with the commercialisation of Victorian research and technology.
His work covers telecommunications security using Optical Fibre Characterisation and Nano-Photonics.

Dr Hylton Menz, La Trobe University, whose research focuses on mobility impairment and falls in older people, with a particular focus on the contribution of foot problems. His research has involved the development of novel approaches for assessing gait stability, the validation of several clinical tests of lower limb characteristics, and the conduct of prospective falls risk factor studies.

Associate Professor Pradeep Nathan, Monash University, research is in the area of Neuropharmacology and Cognitive Neuroscience. His laboratory has gained international recognition for research on the neurochemical basis of cognitive and emotional processes using functional and molecular brain imaging methodology.

Professor Helena Teede, The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women's Health, has built a reputation in the area of the cardiovascular hormonal interaction with national and international collaborations and has directed her primary clinical and research focus to the continuum of disease that is poor lifestyle, obesity, insulin resistance, insulin resistant syndromes including metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovarian syndrome, gestational diabetes, prediabetes diabetes and CVD.

Dr Christine White, Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research, whose research focuses on the events of early pregnancy, with the aim of developing new treatments for infertility and discovering novel methods of non-hormonal contraception for women. She has researched the mechanisms involved in embryo implantation into the uterus and investigated a potential new contraceptive strategy for women, using a unique antagonist of leukaemia inhibitory factor to block embryo implantation in mice.