Field of Research (FoR)
Biography
Research Interests:
My research is broadly focused on determining modifiable risk factors for the development of psychosis and mood disorders, using a combination of techniques from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, genetics, and more recently epidemiology. Major funded research themes include 'imaging genetics' investigations of psychotic and mood disorders, and population-level research to determine the interaction of biological and...view more
Research Interests:
My research is broadly focused on determining modifiable risk factors for the development of psychosis and mood disorders, using a combination of techniques from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, genetics, and more recently epidemiology. Major funded research themes include 'imaging genetics' investigations of psychotic and mood disorders, and population-level research to determine the interaction of biological and environmental risk factors for psychotic disorders over the life course. My early research focused on cognitive and emotion regulation disturbances in a variety of psychiatric disorders and high risk populations, and was translated into social cognitive remediation tools used increasingly in standard psychiatric care. I am now focusing my efforts on large, well characterised clinical and population samples where possible, to faciliate the integrated study of social and biological determininants of psychosis and related conditions. I am particularly interested in stress-related biological changes that may operate differently in response to stressors experienced at different developmental stages. These projects are conducted in close collaboration with NSW government partners and colleagues at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), the Black Dog Institute, and the UNSW School of Psychology, with other national collaborators at the University of Newcastle, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, and Macquarie University. I also collaborate with researchers at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands), the Max Plank Institute for Psychiatry and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (Germany), and Birmingham University (UK).
Broad Research Areas:
Psychiatry, Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Genetics, Epidemiology, Population Health, Developmental Psychology.
Qualifications:
BA (UQ), MLitt (UNE), PhD (USyd)
Specific Research Keywords:
Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorders, Cognition, Stress, Genetics, Epidemiology, Epigenetics, Neurodevelopment, Neuroimaging, Phenomenology, Psychiatric Classification
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
ILP, Honours, Masters, PhD.