Guest Speaker：

Dr John Gerrard, Chief Health Officer, Queensland Health

BSc (Med) MB BS (Syd) MSc (Microbiology) DLSHTM DTM&H (Lon) FRACP
Dr John Gerrard has been Queensland’s Chief Health Officer since December 2021. Dr Gerrard completed his medical and specialist training in Sydney and London between 1980 and 199, quickly becoming one of Australia’s leading infectious disease specialists. As a young doctor in 1993, Dr Gerrard rewrote Australia’s medical history by identifying the country’s earliest known case of AIDS.
Dr Gerrard moved to the Gold Coast in 1994 to take up the post of Director of Infectious Disease at Gold Coast Hospital. Like many other Australians, he first visited Queensland for Expos 88 and immediately fell in love with it. Throughout his time on the Gold Coast, he developed and international reputation for research in emerging infectious diseases and an organism called “Heterorhabditis gerrardri”, that glows in the dark was named in his honour by American researchers in 2009. He is the only living Australian with a human pathogen named after him.
1in 2014, he travelled to Sierra Leone during the West African Ebola epidemic. There, he formed part of a team that established Australia’s first Evola Treatment Centre outside Freetown. During the COVID pandemic, Dr Gerrard managed Queensland’s first cases from Wuhan, China in January 2020. Shortly after, he travelled to Tokyo as part of a mission to assist Japanese authorities in containing the outbreak of COVID-19 aboard the Diamond Princess. In April 2021, Dr Gerrard travelled to the Dutch Antilles as part of a Dutch-sponsored mission where he first experienced the full impact of COVID-19. Shortly after his return he took on the role of Chief Health Officer.

Prof. Qun Li, Deputy Director, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Prof. Qun Li is the Deputy Director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Prof. Li has a long-term working experience in health emergency preparedness and response. He has devoted himself to the fights against SARS, influenza A H1N1, human infection of avian influenza A (H7N9) and COVID-19 outbreaks. He helped with the disaster relief and disease prevention work for the Wenchuan (Sichuan) earthquake in 2008 and the Yushu (Qinghai) earthquake in 2010, and participated in the efforts to ensure hygiene safety during the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Mr. Francis Nona, Carumba Institute, Queensland University of Technology

Francis Nona is a descendant from the Dhoeybaw Clan of Saibai Island with strong ties to Badu Island in the Torres Strait. Francis is a lecturer and early-career researcher at the Queensland University of Technology, Carumba Institute. His work is informed by a strong cultural upbringing, balanced with a career as a Registered Nurse and Director of an Indigenous community-controlled health service in the Darling Downs. Francis has worked in clinical settings as a Registered Nurse including juvenile detention centres, aged care, rehabilitation units, brain injury rehabilitation, and Aboriginal Medical Services.
He has also managed and led Aboriginal Medical Services in his role as acting CEO and Clinic Manager. He has his nursing degree, Master of Public Health and is now enrolled in a PhD with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland. In his research he explores the effects of climate change and burden of infectious disease in Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands, informed by a strong understanding of cultural engagement and protocol from his Country, and an understanding of the health system as it applies to First Nations and other Australians.

Prof. Yumin Li, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Lanzhou University

Prof. Yumin Li is the former Vice President of Lanzhou University, and currently the Dean of the School of Medicine at Lanzhou University, Director of the National Clinical Key Specialty in General Surgery at the Second Hospital of Lanzhou University, Director of the Lanzhou University Engineering Innovation Center for Digestive Tumor Prevention, Control, and Translational Medicine, Director of the Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Digestive System Tumors, Director of the Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Oncology, and Director of the Gansu Provincial Clinical Medical Research Center for Digestive Diseases. Prof. Li is a member of the Medical Service Standards Committee of the National Health Commission and the Higher Education Teaching Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Education. He is also the Standing Director of the Medical Education Professional Committee of the China Association of Higher Education, a member of the Education Committee of the Chinese Medical Association, and the Chair of the Environmental Oncology Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Lanzhou University (Medical Edition).