Dr Caitlin Curtis
Affiliate Research Fellow of School of Public Health
School of Public Health
Lecturer
School of Business
Affiliate of Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Affiliate of Queensland Digital Health Centre & Affiliate of Queensland Digital Health Centre
Queensland Digital Health Centre
Research Fellow
Centre for Policy Futures
+61 7 334 68083
Researcher biography
Dr Caitlin Curtis is an interdisciplinary researcher specialising in responsible AI, applied ethics, and emerging technologies. She leads national collaborations on AI governance and digital rights, shapes public policy and discourse, and created one of Australia's first Responsible AI university courses.
Dr Curtis is a recipient of the 'ABC Top 5 Scientist Media Residency Award', and the Australian Institute of Science & Policy Tall Poppy Science Award', recognizing excellence in both research and science communication.
She was also a Queensland Flying Scientist, with the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist.
Teaching
- Caitlin currently teaches the UQ Master of Business Analytics course: Responsible Artificial Intelligence - which looks at the ethical, legal, and social issues relating to AI and automated systems.
- She also lectures into Responsible Management for the Global Economy, particularly around the ethical and responsible management of artificial intelligence and similar technologies.
She also coordinates and moderates the UQ AI Collaboratory's 'Ask Me Anything about AI' series, which is a unique forum that brings together panellists with technical expertise in artificial intelligence, along with experts from across social science, communication, policy, or law to answer audience questions and spark multidisciplinary discussion around important topics relating to AI systems, including: AI social media predictions, facial recognition systems, misinformation and AI, and deep learning.
| Featured projects | Duration |
|---|---|
| Achieving trustworthy AI in the public sector: A maturity index | |
| Trust in Artificial Intelligence: A global study |
Publications
Book Chapters
Curtis, Caitlin, Gillespie, Nicole and Okimoto, Tyler (2023). Establishing trust in science communication. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 39-47) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2_5
Creamer, Sandra, Toombs, Maree, Tarrago, Avelina, Williams, Renee, Fraser, Jed, Curtis, Caitlin and Brolan, Claire E. (2023). More than black printed words on white paper: intergenerational health justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Australian public health law: contemporary issues and challenges. (pp. 153-178) edited by Belinda Bennett and Ian Freckelton. Alexandria, NSW Australia: The Federation Press.
Journal Articles
Pearson, Samuel and Curtis, Caitlin (2025). Erotic AI chatbots offer research opportunities for the behavioral sciences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 54 (3), 855-858. doi: 10.1007/s10508-025-03085-7
Bingley, William J., Haslam, S. Alexander, Steffens, Niklas K., Gillespie, Nicole, Worthy, Peter, Curtis, Caitlin, Lockey, Steven, Bialkowski, Alina, Ko, Ryan K.L. and Wiles, Janet (2023). Enlarging the model of the human at the heart of human-centered AI: a social self-determination model of AI system impact. New Ideas in Psychology, 70 101025, 1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2023.101025
Bingley, William J., Curtis, Caitlin, Lockey, Steven, Bialkowski, Alina, Gillespie, Nicole, Haslam, S. Alexander, Ko, Ryan K.L., Steffens, Niklas, Wiles, Janet and Worthy, Peter (2023). Where is the human in human-centered AI? Insights from developer priorities and user experiences. Computers in Human Behavior, 141 107617, 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107617
Toombs, Maree R., Curtis, Caitlin and Brolan, Claire E. (2023). Supporting Indigenous health equity strategic planning: a Queensland perspective. Medical Journal of Australia, 218 (1), 5-8. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51794
Curtis, Caitlin and Brolan, Claire E. (2022). Health care in the metaverse. Medical Journal of Australia, 218 (1), 46-46. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51793
Curtis, Caitlin, Gillespie, Nicole and Lockey, Steven (2022). AI-deploying organizations are key to addressing ‘perfect storm’ of AI risks. AI and Ethics, 3 (1), 1-9. doi: 10.1007/s43681-022-00163-7
Wasef, Sally, Subramanian, Sankar, O’Rorke, Richard, Huynen, Leon, El-Marghani, Samia, Curtis, Caitlin, Popinga, Alex, Holland, Barbara, Ikram, Salima, Millar, Craig, Willerslev, Eske and Lambert, David (2019). Mitogenomic diversity in Sacred Ibis mummies sheds light on early Egyptian practices. PLoS ONE, 14 (11) e0223964, e0223964. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223964
Belcher, Andrea, Mangelsdorf, Marie, McDonald, Fiona, Curtis, Caitlin, Waddell, Nicola and Hussey, Karen (2019). What does Australia’s investment in genomics mean for public health?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 43 (3), 204-206. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12887
Curtis, Caitlin, Hereward, James, Mangelsdorf, Marie, Hussey, Karen and Devereux, John (2018). Protecting trust in medical genetics in the new era of forensics. Genetics in Medicine, 21 (7), 1483-1485. doi: 10.1038/s41436-018-0396-7
Curtis, Caitlin, Millar, Craig D. and Lanbert, David M. (2018). The Sacred Ibis debate: the first test of evolution. PLOS Biology, 16 (9) e2005558, e2005558. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005558
Poulakis, Gregg R., Stevens, Philip W., Timmers, Amy A., Stafford, Christopher J., Chapman, Demian D., Feldheim, Kevin A., Heupel, Michelle R. and Curtis, Caitlin (2016). Long-term site fidelity of endangered smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) from different mothers. Fishery Bulletin, 114 (4), 461-475. doi: 10.7755/FB.114.4.8
Wasef, S., Wood, R., El Merghani, S., Ikram, S., Curtis, C., Holland, B., Willerslev, E., Millar, C. D. and Lambert, D. M. (2015). Radiocarbon dating of Sacred Ibis mummies from ancient Egypt. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 4, 355-361. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.09.020
Xu, Cheng-Yuan, Tang, Shaoqing, Fatemi, Mohammad, Gross, Caroline L., Julien, Mic H., Curtis, Caitlin and van Klinken, Rieks D. (2015). Population structure and genetic diversity of invasive Phyla canescens: implications for the evolutionary potential. Ecosphere, 6 (9) 161, 162.1-162.21. doi: 10.1890/ES14-00374.1
Chambers, Geoffrey K., Curtis, Caitlin, Millar, Craig D, Huynen, Leon and Lambert, David M (2014). DNA fingerprinting in zoology: past, present, future. Investigative Genetics, 5 (3) 3. doi: 10.1186/2041-2223-5-3
Seyoum, Seifu, Tringali, Michael D., Bielefeld, Ronald R., Feddersen, Jamie C., Benedict, Richard J., Jr., Fanning, Andrew T., Barthel, Brandon L., Curtis, Caitlin, Puchulutegui, Cecilia, Roberts, Alicia C. M., Villanova, Vicki L. and Tucker, Emily C. (2012). Fifty-nine microsatellite markers for hybrid classification studies involving endemic Florida Mottled Duck (Anas fulvigula fulvigula) and invasive Mallards (A. platyrhynchos). Conservation Genetics Resources, 4 (3), 681-687. doi: 10.1007/s12686-012-9622-9
Curtis, Caitlin, Stewart, Brent S. and Karl, Stephen A. (2011). Genetically effective population sizes of Antarctic seals estimated from nuclear genes. Conservation Genetics, 12 (6), 1435-1446. doi: 10.1007/s10592-011-0241-x
Curtis, Caitlin, Stewart, Brent S. and Karl, Stephen A. (2009). Pleistocene population expansions of Antarctic seals. Molecular Ecology, 18 (10), 2112-2121. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04166.x
Curtis, Caitlin, Stewart, Brent S. and Karl, Stephen A. (2007). Sexing pinnipeds with ZFX and ZFY loci. Journal of Heredity, 98 (3), 280-285. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esm023
Conference Papers
Pool, Javad, Smith, Natalie, Dodds, Hunter, Lockey, Steven, Curtis, Caitlin, Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Gillespie, Nicole (2023). An AI-enabled community safety service: stakeholder benefits and vulnerabilities. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Wellington, New Zealand, 5 - 8 December 2023. Atlanta, GA, United States: Association for Information Systems.
Mayer, Roger C., Jang, Dongil, Shah, Pri Pradhan, Jones, Stephen L., Siderits, Ian, Flynn, Patrick, Mulvey, Paul W, Lockey, Steve, Gillespie, Nicole, Pool, Javad, Curtis, Caitlin, Edwards, Martin, Belkin, Liuba, Tuskey, Sarah, Becker, William J., Korsgaard, M. Audrey, Strizver, Sam, Ployhart, Robert E and Williams, Michele (2023). From the complex present to the risk-laden future of trust: over the mountain and into the frying pan. 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston, MA United States, 4-8 August 2023. Briarcliff Manor, NY United States: Academy of Management. doi: 10.5465/amproc.2023.18559symposium
Lockey, Steve, Gillespie, Nicole, Curtis, Caitlin, Bingley, William, Worthy, Peter, Haslam, Alexander, Steffens, Niklas, Bialkowski, Alina, Ko, Ryan and Wiles, Janet (2022). Necessary but not sufficient: assurance mechanisms for enhancing trust in AI-enabled job screening. 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, WA United States, 5-9 August 2022. Briarcliff Manor, NY United States: Academy of Management. doi: 10.5465/ambpp.2022.10638abstract
Zhang, Yanjun, Bai, Guangdong, Li, Xue, Curtis, Caitlin, Chen, Chen and Ko, Ryan K. L. (2021). Privacy-preserving gradient descent for distributed genome-wide analysis. ESORICS 2021 - 26th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, Darmstadt, Germany, 4–8 October, 2021. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-88428-4_20
Zhang, Yanjun, Bai, Guangdong, Li, Xue, Curtis, Caitlin, Chen, Chen and Ko, Ryan K. L. (2020). PrivColl: practical privacy-preserving collaborative machine learning. European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, Guildford, United Kingdom, 14-18 September 2020. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-58951-6_20
Zhang, Yanjun, Zhao, Xin, Li, Xue, Zhong, Mingyang, Curtis, Caitlin and Chen, Chen (2019). Enabling privacy-preserving sharing of genomic data for GWASs in decentralized networks. Twelfth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 11-15 February 2019. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3289600.3290983
Chapman, Demian D., Simpfendorfer, Colin A., Wiley, Tonya R., Poulakis, Gregg R., Curtis, Caitlin, Tringali, Michael, Carlson, John K. and Feldheim, Kevin A. (2011). Genetic diversity despite population collapse in a critically endangered Marine fish: The smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esr098
Preprint
Video Document
Curtis, Caitlin, UQ Faculty of Science (producer) and Gilmore, Joel (host) (2018). BrisScience (March 2018): Could cryptocurrencies let you control & sell access to your DNA data?. BrisScience (Lecture series).
Newspaper Articles
Fitzgerald, Rachel and Curtis, Caitlin (2025, 07 18). AI is now part of our world. Uni graduates should know how to use it responsibly The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Lockey, Steven (2023, 04 05). Regulation is key to responsible AI, but what might this look like? The Australian and New Zealand School of Government / National Regulators Community of Practice Newsletter
Gillespie, Nicole, Curtis, Caitlin, Pool, Javad and Lockey, Steven (2023, 02 23). A survey of over 17,000 people indicates only half of us are willing to trust AI at work The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2021, 12 13). New technology lets police link DNA to appearance and ancestry – and it’s coming to Australia The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin, Gillespie, Nicole and Lockey, Steven (2020, 10 29). Australians have low trust in artificial intelligence and want it to be better regulated The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin (2019, 04 01). How DNA ancestry testing can change our ideas of who we are The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin, Hereward, James, Devereux, John, Hussey, Karen and Mangelsdorf, Marie (2018, 12 19). Dramatic advances in forensics expose the need for genetic data legislation The Conversation
Hereward, James and Curtis, Caitlin (2018, 10 24). Tweaking just a few genes in wild plants can create new food crops - but let's get the regulation right The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin (2018, 08 13). Online genealogy has created an unregulated forensic database for police ABC Online
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2018, 05 11). Criminals can’t easily edit their DNA out of forensic databases The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2018, 05 02). DNA facial prediction could make protecting your privacy more difficult The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2018, 01 23). New cryptocurrencies could let you control and sell access to your DNA data The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2017, 12 04). It’s time to talk about who can access your digital genomic data The Conversation
Curtis, Caitlin and Hereward, James (2017, 08 29). From the crime scene to the courtroom: the journey of a DNA sample The Conversation
Research Reports
Curtis, Caitlin (2024). Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI). Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/48dfdd6
Gillespie, Nicole, Lockey, Steve, Curtis, Caitlin and Pool, Javad (2023). Trust in AI: Country insights on shifting public perceptions of AI: Country findings. Brisbane, Australia; New York, United States: The University of Queensland; KPMG Australia.
Gillespie, Nicole, Lockey, Steve, Curtis, Caitlin and Pool, Javad (2023). Trust in AI: 2023 Global study on the shifting public perceptions of AI: Global Executive Summary. New York, NY, United States; Brisbane, Australia: KPMG International; The University of Queensland.
Curtis, Caitlin, Hereward, James and Newton, Giselle (2023). Submission to the Australian Government: Attorney-General’s Department review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) - genetic and genomic data. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland and the Australian Government: Attorney-General’s Department.
Gillespie, Nicole, Lockey, Steven, Curtis, Caitlin, Pool, Javad and Ali Akbari (2023). Trust in Artificial Intelligence: A global study. Brisbane, Australia; New York, United States: The University of Queensland; KPMG Australia. doi: 10.14264/00d3c94
Gillespie, Nicole, Lockey, Steve and Curtis, Caitlin (2021). Trust in artificial Intelligence: a five country study. Brisbane, Australia; New York, United States: The University of Queensland; KPMG. doi: 10.14264/e34bfa3
Curtis, Caitlin, Gillespie, Nicole and Lockey, Steve (2020). Submission to the Review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Australia: The University of Queensland & Australian Government: Attorney-General's Department. doi: 10.14264/501b50f
Gillespie, Nicole, Curtis, Caitlin, Bianchi, Rossana, Akbari, Ali and Fentener van Vlissingen, Rita (2020). Achieving Trustworthy AI: A Model for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. Australia: The University of Queensland and KPMG. doi: 10.14264/ca0819d
Lockey, Steve, Gillespie, Nicole and Curtis, Caitlin (2020). Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Australian Insights . Australia: The University of Queensland and KPMG. doi: 10.14264/b32f129
Curtis, Caitlin, Radke, Amelia and Hereward, James (2020). Human rights and technology project, submission #73 to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Human Rights and Technology Project: Australian Human Rights Commission.
Hussey, Karen, Yarnold, Jennifer, McEwan, Christopher, Maher, Ray, Henman, Paul, Radke, Amelia, Curtis, Caitlin, Fidelman, Pedro, Vickers, Claudia and Brolan, Claire (2019). Policy futures: regulating the new economy. Policy Futures Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland.
Curtis, Caitlin, Mangelsdorf, Marie and Hereward, James (2018). Submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights and Technology Project. Australia: Australian Human Rights Commission.
Audio Documents
Curtis, Caitlin (Guest), Bullen, James (Producer) and Williams, Robyn (Presenter) (2019). 'Ockham's Razor': DNA ancestry testing and race. ABC Radio National.
Curtis, Caitlin (2018). DNA tests, the Golden State Killer, and your privacy. ABC Radio National.
Department Technical Reports
Curtis, Caitlin, Mangelsdorf, Marie, Devereux, John, Morrison, David and Hussey, Karen (2019). Identifying the ethical, legal and social implications of genomics in Queensland's health system: a preliminary assessment. Centre for Policy Futures, The University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Poulakis GR, Stevens PW, Timmers AA, Stafford CJ, Curtis C, Trinagali MD and Bakenhaster MD (2010). Distribution, habitat use, and movements of juvenile smalltooth sawfish, Pristis pectinata, in the Charlotte Harbor estuarine system, Florida. Final Report, F2616-06-09-F. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.