Theme: Moving Forward

This event will be open to Year 12 students from both Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Girls Grammar School, as well as invited guests.

The Lilley Centre Forum, Brisbane Grammar School
24 Gregory Terrace
Spring Hill
Brisbane, Queensland, 4000
Australia

Ethan Gillan

Year 12 student at Brisbane Grammar School

Ethan has interests in both sport and leadership endeavours, and he is a joint leader of Brisbane Grammar School’s Closing the Gap Committee. He will be presenting a talk on indigenous perspectives and closing the gap, with a particular focus on working towards a united nation under a single flag.

Harry Jans

Year 12 student at Brisbane Grammar School

Harry has been an avid member of the BGS Music program ever since his enrollment in 2010. Throughout his life he has had a fascination with music and, more specifically, with the guitar. As a student leader at his school, he has been able to see the impact of music on students of all ages as he participates in a variety of ensembles, and mentors younger groups. Harry has also been able to connect with the community through his music by helping students at the Nursery Road Special School in Brisbane with music therapy and lessons. He believes that music is the most diverse form of expression, and its evolution has been quite incredible. He aspires to be a professional musician one day, as it would allow full dedication to his passion.

Jane O'Hara

Director of the Brisbane Writers Festival from 2009-2012, and Producer of the Writers + Ideas program at the Brisbane Power House.

Jane O’Hara is the Producer of the Writers + Ideas program at Brisbane Powerhouse. She is the former Festival Director/CEO of Brisbane Writers Festival (2009 – 2012). She also produced Word Play for Brisbane Writers Festival (2005 – 2008) along with the education program for the 2009 Ideas Festival. Jane is a 2012 Churchill Fellow and holds a Bachelor of Arts and Graduate Diploma Teaching (Primary).

Mathilde Desselle

Program coordinator for outreach for the award-winning Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery, a global initiative of The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

Mathilde is leading the marketing and outreach strategy and team in accessing compounds collections from all over the world and setting up international partnerships. She has over 8 years’ management experience driving engagement strategies for life sciences research programs and facilities in Europe and Australia, and the ambition to make a difference in the space of public health. She is passionate with finding innovative approaches to drive transformational change and solutions to diagnose, track and treat infectious diseases. She is also a science communicator and a board director for Women in Technology, the peak body association for women in science and ICT careers in Queensland, and for the Tech Girls Movement, promoting positive role models to encourage and raise awareness of STEM careers for girls.

Patrick Weeden

Managing Director of the Scout Aerial group of companies, heavily involved in RPAS innovation and new and emerging technologies and their potential applications.

In his professional career Patrick has provided data management, quality management, risk management and communication strategies for monitoring and remote sensing programs across multiple industries. Complimenting Patrick’s expertise in competently managing diverse and numerous data, other responsibilities and activities have included: RPAS experimental design, analysis and manufacturing processes for remote sensing platforms. RPAS safety, risk management and airspace integration is an area that Patrick is passionate about working in, particularly in developing countries with challenging aviation regulations and, often, a lack of resources to develop such frameworks. With the rapid advance of this technology, Patrick hopes to make a positive impact in RPAS safety. Additionally, he is extremely passionate about the RPAS industry, the applications for improving processes and using technology to create change for the better.

Penny Nash

Year 12 student at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

Penny has a passion for academia and the Arts. From a young age, she has been involved in music, dance, drama and more, and possesses a growing interest for the place of Arts in today’s school curriculum. Her ultimate goals are to travel the world, experiencing a variety of cultural practices, and to bring a greater appreciation for a diverse range of Arts into both primary and secondary education systems.

Professor Linda Richards

Professor of Neuroscience and Deputy Director of the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland.

Professor Richards' laboratory focuses on the development of the cerebral cortex and cerebral connectivity, in particular, the development of the corpus callosum. In 2015 she co-founded an International Consortium for the Corpus Callosum and Cerebral Connectivity with colleagues from Melbourne, San Francisco, France and Brazil, which brings together clinicians and scientists working to identify the causes of developmental brain disorders and how best to provide support and care for affected individuals and their families. Professor Richards has received the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists in 2004 and the Nina Kondelos award from the Australasian Neuroscience Society in 2010. Since 2011 Professor Richards has been a Principal Research Fellow with the National Health and Medical Research Council. In 2015 she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and she is president-elect of the Australasian Neuroscience Society.

Professor Peter Silburn

Neurologist, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at The University of Queensland, Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation, and a world expert in the treatment and research of Parkinson's disease, related neurodegenerative disorders and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

Professor Silburn's work in DBS is changing the lives of patients with a wide range of diseases and conditions for whom standard medical therapies have not been effective, including patients with Parkinson's disease, Dystonia, Tourette's syndrome, Essential Tremor, and Post-stroke disorders. Professor Silburn graduated from The University of Queensland in 1988 and commenced training in neurology at The Princess Alexandra Hospital, completing his training at Oxford in The United Kingdom at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He was subsequently the Clinical Lecturer in Neurology at the University of Oxford. He then went to the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, as a Research Fellow in the Department of Molecular Medicine. He returned to Brisbane in July 1996, commenced private practice and established affiliations with The University of Queensland. He became full Professor in Neurobiology in 2006 and Foundation Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the UQ School of Medicine in 2007.

Rosie Cavdarski

Year 12 student at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

Rosie enjoys public speaking, particularly when discussing topical issues, an interest which has lead her to pursue activities such as Debating and Model UN. At Brisbane Girls Grammar School she is Debating Captain and Arts Captain and has represented her school at an International Youth Forum in China.

Sachin de Silva

Year 12 student at Brisbane Grammar School.

Sachin has a strong passion for theoretical physics, a branch of Science that pushes man’s knowledge of the universe. More specifically, in the future, he hopes to help discover why and how the universe is changing. Sachin will entertain his audience with the possibility of extra dimensions in reality. What is a dimension? Would ‘extra dimensions’ even do anything? Sachin conveys what this perplexing idea means for society moving forward.

Sir Leo Hielscher

Former Queensland Treasury Corporation chairman.

Retiring at age 83, after 68 years in the public service, Sir Leo made an "unrivalled contribution to Queensland" since he took a job with the state audit office in 1942, aged 15. He established Gladstone as an industrial and resources hub, negotiated key contracts with mining companies to secure royalties for taxpayers, facilitated the development of Griffith University, Queensland's casino industry and two coal terminals, and established the Queensland Treasury Corporation. He developed and fully funded the state's long-term superannuation and employee liabilities, and he drove the planning, financing and construction of the first Gateway bridge in the early 1980s. As a tribute to his services, the dual Gateway bridges were re-named as the Sir Leo Hielscher bridges.

Suzy Wilson

Owner of Riverbend Bookstore and founder of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Riverbend Books has won the Australian Independent Bookshop of the Year Award twice, and the Queensland Independent Bookshop of the Year eight times. Suzy has been recognised on a number of occasions for her efforts in advocating for the right of all children to have the opportunity to become literate. In 2010 she received the Dromkeen Award for her efforts in 'being a catalyst in changing children's lives through literature.' In 2012 she was appointed Ambassador for the National Year of Reading, and in this role she worked closely with local schools, running literacy workshops. In 2014 she was honoured in the Australia Day Awards, winning the Queensland’s Local Hero award. The annual Johnno prize was awarded to Suzy in 2015, named after founding QWC patron David Malouf's novel 'Johnno.' It is presented in recognition of "the contribution of an exceptional individual or group to Queensland writers and writing".

Xavier Redmond

Year 12 student at Brisbane Grammar School.

Xavier is involved in Debating at both national and international levels, and is interested in politics, law, and international relations. He will critique societal conceptions of heroism and explore how they prevent us from moving forward.