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Dr Chase Sherwell is a Research Fellow at the UQ Learning Lab and the Principal Research Technician for the Compassionate Mind Research Group in the School of Psychology. His research combines neuroscientific, psychological, and educational perspectives to provide tools for enacting learning, well-being, and behavioural change in real-world contexts. With a focus on application, Dr Sherwell’s work aims to identify metrics of internal psychological mechanisms that can be easily interpreted and integrated by professionals and end-users to facilitate skill development and mental health in everyday life.

With a background in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and education research, Dr Sherwell leads projects that aim to explain learning, development, and mental health across disciplinary lines: from the level of neural networks through to everyday experience. Integrating multi-modal techniques including digital interaction, biometrics, and neurophysiology, Dr Sherwell develops tools, user experiences, and analytics that provide actionable metrics and insights for professionals and researchers.

Dr Sherwell is a Research Fellow in the UQ Learning Lab: a team of multi-disciplinary researchers, educators, and industry partners who collaborate to transform learning, teaching, and training in diverse school and post-school environments through the science of learning. In this role, Dr Sherwell lends his expertise in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to develop projects aimed at understanding and measuring the barriers, facilitators, and mechanisms of self-regulation in professional contexts. He leads projects designing digital tools providing educators with real-time feedback on learner states and skill development integrating smartphone apps and biometrics from wearable devices.

Dr Sherwell is also the Principal Research Technician for the Compassionate Mind Research Group – the leading research hub for Compassion Science in Australia, based at the UQ School of Psychology. In this role, he oversees research design and development across projects investigating the mechanisms of prosocial behaviour in everyday life, barriers to clinical interventions, and the efficacy of online interventions for mental health.

Dr Hannah Thomas is a Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and has academic affiliations with both The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. She completed a PhD on adolescent bullying and cyberbullying, which was recognised by the Australian Psychological Society as the best original contribution to knowledge. As a psychologist she has experience in the delivery of evidence-based treatments for mental health and social difficulties with children and adolescents and their families. Dr Thomas developed and validated the Bullying and Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents [BCS-A] and co-led the work to have bullying victimisation included as a risk factor for mental disorders in the Global Burden of Disease Study. She is also a co-investigator on the Australian Child Maltreatment Prevalence Study, which is the most comprehensive study the prevalence, health, and economic burden of child maltreatment in Australia. Her ongoing research is focused on the prevention of adverse childhood experiences and mental illness in the population.

I am a Research Fellow in the Institute of Social Science Research at The University of Queensland.

My research interests coalesce around issues of social justice within organisations. I am particularly curious about how the way we perceive others informs our treatment of one and other in the workplace. I spend a lot of my time exploring this idea in the context of leadership. For example, collaborators and I have been working with industry professionals in Australia and North America to understand what organisational structures inhibit minority leaders' (e.g., women, racially diverse) progression and retention. We've also been investigating possible disrupters that may serve to improve minority leaders' chances of success in leadership roles.

I also spend a lot of time on applied research problems through partnering with industry to examine the effectiveness of practical initiatives or policy shifts. Recently, we've been working on understanding the supportive mechanisms that enhance boat safety in Northern Australia, while another partnership has focused on understanding how novel bail support programs can be enhanced to support young people to meet their youth justice orders.

I received my BPsycSc and MPsyOrg from UQ Psychology before completing a PhD in Leadership / Organisational Behaviour at UQ Business School. In 2019 I moved to The University of Illinois for a postdoctoral fellowship before joining the Institute of Social Science Research in 2021.

I am also an Organisational Psychologist and consult with industry on people focused challenges. I partner with business leaders and people managers to develop and implement evidence based actions and strategies.

I work with collaborators in Australia and North America, and I have the good fortune of supporting several RHD candidates at present.