Our team

TAWC’s Executive Committee (a.k.a. the TAWC Team) is comprised of academics from The University of Queensland, The University of Newcastle, The University of Western Australia, and The University of Adelaide. These experts in animal welfare and related disciplines are passionate about engaging with all of society to create substantial, evidence-based improvements in the welfare of animals. In addition to their academic duties in research and teaching, they contribute part of their time each week to running The Animal Welfare Collaborative.

Professor Alan Tilbrook, Managing Director of The Animal Welfare Collaborative, The University of Queensland

Professor Alan Tilbrook

The University of Queensland,

Managing Director of TAWC

Alan is a Professor of Animal Welfare at The University of Queensland. He is interested in the neurophysiological assessment of animal welfare and is actively involved in developing ways to measure both the positive and negative mental state of animals. 

02_Professor Rohan Walker

Professor Rohan Walker

The University of Newcastle

Rohan is an interdisciplinary scientist who sits at the crossroads of neuroscience, psychology and biomedical engineering. He is interested in understanding the effects of stress on the brain and body, on a basic functional and molecular level, as well as how to monitor and control the effects of stress using biomarkers and biometric technologies. He enjoys thinking about ‘big picture’ issues and working on over-the-horizon solutions. 

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Associate Professor Dominique Blache

The University of Western Australia

Dominique researches and teaches at The University of Western Australia. He is fascinated by the multidisciplinary aspect of the study of human-non-human interactions. He enjoys the uncertainty of life, and he thinks that education and communication can help all of us to deal with it. 

03_Professor Graeme Martin

Professor Graeme Martin

The University of Western Australia

Graeme Martin has studied livestock physiology and behaviour for 40 years, in Australia, France, Scotland, Mexico, and other countries. He has been particularly interested in how environmental factors (nutrition, pheromones, stress) affect reproduction. He harnesses the world’s knowledge in this field to develop animal management systems that are ‘clean, green and ethical’. In 2019, he was elected to the Academie d’Agriculture de France and, for 2021, he has been awarded the Marshall Medal from the Society for Reproduction and Fertility, the UK society’s highest honour, and a Fellowship in the Australian Association of Animal Sciences.

01_Professor Shane Maloney

Professor Shane Walker

The University of Western Australia

Shane Maloney has worked on thermoregulation and thermal stress in mammals and birds since his PhD on emus in the early 1990s. He is particularly interested in the biophysics of heat exchange and the impacts of hypo- and hyperthermia on animal (including human) performance. His dream is to develop ways to make animals more heat tolerant, without a reduction in performance. 

Professor John Williams

The University of Adelaide

John is the inaugural Director of the Davies Research Centre at The University of Adelaide. He is interested in using the latest technologies to understand the genome structure and function in animals, as well as how animals differ in their ability to cope with environmental stress.

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Professor Mark Hutchinson

The University of Adelaide

Mark is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics at the University of Adelaide. He is interested in reaching the limits of light-based measurement within complex and dynamic biological environments and establishing new forms of measurement that can operate within living organisms.

Stephan Leu

Dr. Stephan Leu

The University of Adelaide

Stephan is a behavioural ecologist at The University of Adelaide. In his research he asks fundamental questions about the emergence, maintenance and consequences of social structure in animal populations. He is passionate about understanding complex interconnections between animal social networks, movement ecology, and disease ecology.