True Crime panel: behind the scenes with writers and scientists

Saturday 3 May, 11am–12pm
Location: UQ Centre, Lecture Hall

The True Crime genre continues to captivate audiences, but have you ever wondered how authors interpret the ever-evolving science behind the big forensic breakthroughs?

Join award-winning UQP crime writer and UQ alum Matthew Condon OAM (Bachelor of Arts ’83) and internationally recognised geneticist Professor Grant Montgomery for an intriguing discussion that bridges the gap between scientific advancements and creative storytelling.

About the presenters

Matthew Condon OAM is a prize-winning Australian novelist and journalist. He began his journalism career with the Gold Coast Bulletin in 1984 and subsequently worked for leading newspapers and journals including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald, Melbourne’s Sunday Age and The Courier-Mail. He has written ten books of fiction, including The Trout Opera and is the author of the bestselling true-crime trilogy about Queensland crime and corruption – Three Crooked Kings (2013), Jacks and Jokers (2014), All Fall Down (2015) and Little Fish are Sweet (2016). His most recent book is The Night Dragon (2019). He is the host of two true crime podcasts – Ghost Gate Road and Dig: Sirens Are Coming.

Emeritus Professor Grant Montgomery is a leading, internationally renowned geneticist. He has made substantial contributions to worldwide efforts to map genomic regions contributing to risk for complex traits and diseases, including endometriosis, age at menarche and menopause, cancers of the reproductive tract, and melanoma. Professor Montgomery has been a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellow since 2005. He was elected a Fellow the Society for Reproductive Biology in 2012, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2016. Professor Montgomery is regarded as one of Australia’s leading geneticists: AD Scientific Index 2023 rates him in the top 2% for citations in Australia and world-wide.

Moderator

Professor Heather Zwicker is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at UQ. A cultural studies researcher, Professor Zwicker brings postcolonial and feminist theories to bear on problems such as stereotypes, universities, classrooms and cities. Her research seeks to understand concepts that explain the world we inhabit.