Dr Selina Cao
Researcher biography
Dr Zhe (Selina) Cao is a Research Fellow in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the UQ Business School and an ARC Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. Her research examines how innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems are created, orchestrated, and transformed to enable scientific and technological breakthroughs with sustainable impact. Drawing on ecosystem theory, organizational studies, and science and technology policy, she explores topics such as university-industry collaboration, interdisciplinary innovation, paradox transcendence, and platform-based entrepreneurship.
Selina adopts an interdisciplinary, qualitative approach to studying innovation ecosystems in action. Her current research focuses on synthetic biology commercialization, translational research infrastructure, and stakeholder governance within national research initiatives. She chairs the Commercialisation and Translation Advisory Committee at CoESB and plays an active role in shaping the Centre's research strategy and broader ecosystem engagement.
She holds a PhD in Management and Entrepreneurship from Imperial College London. During her doctoral studies, she conducted fieldwork on the evolution of the Alibaba innovation ecosystem as a visiting researcher at Tsinghua University, and coached over 200 entrepreneurs through her work with the Imperial Enterprise Lab. Before entering academia, Selina worked as a Corporate Associate at DuPont's Wilmington office in the United States, and later as an auditor at PwC in the Philadelphia and Toronto offices.