Research personnel

Professor Thomas V. Riley

BAppSc, MAppEpid, PhD, FRCPath, MAIMS, FASM, FAAM

Thomas has a variety of research interests including anaerobic microorganisms, alternative therapies for infectious diseases and epidemiology. He holds dual appointments at The University of Western Australia and PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA. Apart from under-graduate and post-graduate teaching commitments with the university, he has research responsibilities with both organisations and collaborates with many national and international research groups.

Visit Tom Riley's homepage

Dr Christine F. Carson

BSc (Hons), PhD

Christine started the tea tree oil work in 1993 and submitted her PhD thesis on the antimicrobial properties of tea tree oil in 1999. Since 1995 she has been employed full-time to investigate the antimicrobial activity of tea tree oil. Her projects have included work on the antibacterial and antiviral activity of tea tree oil, funded by RIRDC and industry. Other work includes examining the mechanism of action of tea tree oil against bacteria, coordination of the group's work and continuing the in vivo clinical trial work.

Dr Katherine A. Hammer

BSc, Postgrad Dip Sci, PhD

Kate began working on tea tree oil in 1994 as part of a Postgraduate Diploma in Science. In 1995 she was employed by UWA, funded by a grant from industry. Since then she has been involved in many different research projects focusing mainly on the antimicrobial properties of tea tree oil and tea tree oil products. She completed her PhD on the antifungal properties of tea tree oil in 2003.

Mrs Chelsea J. Papadopoulos

BSc (Hons).

Chelsea was employed as a research assistant with the group in December 2002, after completing her honours project on tea tree oil. In 2004 she commenced a PhD. The main focus of her research is investigating the mechanisms of bacterial resistance to tea tree oil and components. 

Dr David Smith 

David is the Clinical Director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA. He has been involved in several of the in vitro and in vivo tea tree oil research projects. His research interests include mosquito-borne virus infections, antiviral agents derived from plants, surveillance of infectious diseases using molecular methods, papilloma virus infections and cervical cancer and PCR-based diagnostic techniques.

Past staff

Dr Syndie Messager (pictured right)

Mrs Linda Dry

Mrs Gail Lampacher