EARLIER IDENTIFICATION AND EARLY INTERVENTION FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING
With
Professor Greg Leigh AO, Director
NextSense Institute, Australia &
Conjoint Professor, Macquarie School of Education
Macquarie University, Sydney
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | June 2025
As Director of NextSense Institute, Professor Leigh is responsible for leading the not-for-profit organisation’s world-class research and education programs and facilities.
Professor Leigh held a variety of positions in the education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing before entering academia. He holds a degree in Special Education from Griffith University, a Master of Science (Speech and Hearing) from Washington University and a PhD in Special Education from Monash University. In 2001, he was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and in 2014, he was invested as an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished services to the deaf and hard of hearing community.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education and has researched widely on issues related to the early development and education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
A former National President of the Education Commission for the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, Professor Leigh has also Chaired the International Steering Committees of both the Asia-Pacific Congress on Deafness (APCD) and the International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED).
He has served on several Australian Government consultative committees, including the New South Wales Ministerial Standing Committee on Hearing, the National Neonatal Hearing Screening Working Party, and the Key Scientists Committee of the Hearing Cooperative Research Centre.
For the last 19 years, Professor Leigh has chaired the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee.
In his spare time, Professor Leigh is an active member/supporter of the Sydney Swans Football Club, and he and his wife enjoy symphonic music. He is also actively involved in the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society as a volunteer for the Vinnie’s Van program.
Source: Supplied
-
Exercise program for the prevention of osteoporotic fracture
Dr Beck is an international leader in the effects of mechanical loading on bone health. Dr Beck graduated from The University of Queensland (BHMS[Ed]) and the University of Oregon (MSc and PhD) and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Stanford University School of Medicine (California, USA.) She is a Professor of Exercise Science at Griffith University Gold Coast campus, where she has led the Bone Densitometry Research Laboratory since 2004.
-
Infections and other lung diseases using models of human lung tissue grown from stem cells
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute leading a multidisciplinary team, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research centres around induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate respiratory diseases, spanning acute respiratory infections to chronic lung diseases. Using stem cells, Dr Werder’s team creates models of human lung tissue. With these models, Dr Werder is investigating how human-specific pathogens infect different regions of the lung, the ensuing immune responses, and how the lung repairs itself after infections, especially in people with preexisting lung diseases.
-
Seeking discoveries in earlier bowel cancer detection
Associate Professor Susan Woods is a cancer research focused on eradicating bowel cancer through earlier detection and investigating the DNA related from colorectal cancer cells. She leads the Gut Cancer Research Group at the University of Adelaide and SAHMRI and with her team is researching new treatments for advanced disease.
