Find an expert

Virginia Slaughter is Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, where she founded the Early Cognitive Development Centre. Her research focuses on social and cognitive development in infants and young children, with particular emphasis on social behaviour in infancy, theory-of-mind development and the acquisition of peer interaction skills. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

Dr David Smerdon is an Associate Professor in the School of Economics, and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. He primarily works in behavioural and development economics. His research involves theory and modelling, experiments, and econometric analysis to investigate topics at the intersection of these fields, such as reducing female genital cutting in Somalia, and stopping child trafficking in Nepal.

David earned his PhD from the Tinbergen Institute and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) as a General Sir John Monash scholar, and afterwards worked as a PODER fellow at Bocconi University in Milan. His research often involves collaboration with non-academic partners, ranging from aid agencies and NGOs like US AID and Save the Children, to tech companies like Chess.com and WHOOP.

Prior to his academic career, David spent three years working for the Australian Department of Treasury as a policy analyst. David is also a chess Grandmaster and has represented Australia at eight chess Olympiads. Combining his passions, David conducts niche research in chess economics on topics such as gender inequality, cheating, and the life cycle of cognitive performance, supported by organisations such as the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and Chessable.

Jacob is a Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, at the University of Queensland. Jacob works on projects under the Meaningful Outcomes in Substance use Treatments Centre of Research Excellence (MO-CRE) and the National Centre for Youth Substance use Research (NCYSUR).

Jacob completed his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University in 2022, where his projected examined the motivational influencers on alcohol and drug preloading behaviours across youth populations in entertainment districts. After completion of his PhD, Jacob developed further clinical specilisation into the treatment of substance use disorders, behavioural addictions, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and long-term emotional dysregulation. While focusing on his clinical career, Jacob honed his scientist-practitioner skills, published several journal articles and presented in conference proceedings.

Jacob's research interests lie in the overlap between mental health and substance use difficulties, improving outcomes in AOD treatment services through brief interventions, as well, the motivational predictors of alcohol and substance use with relation to preloading and broader policy implications.

Current projects:

• Examining alcohol and substance use trends in youth college populations
• Exploring the potential role of lived experience peer workers in early AOD treatment
• Investigating and testing theoretical components and predictors of alcohol and drug preloading behaviours
• Projects under the MO-CRE and NCYSUR

Associate Professor Sally Staton is an applied developmental scientist whose research focuses on how early life experiences, environments, and the systems that support children shape lifelong learning, development, brain health, and wellbeing. As an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow and Leader of the Brain Health and Early Development Research Group at The University of Queensland's Child Health Research Centre, she works at the intersection of developmental science, policy, and practice to generate and translate evidence to support children, families, and communities.

Her research examines how early experiences and the physical and social environments in which children and families live, learn, and grow influence health and development across the life course. A major focus of her work is understanding how early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments, sleep, and the design of physical and interactional spaces support children's development. She currently leads the ARC-funded Building Futures project, which is generating evidence to inform the design of early childhood learning environments, and recently completed the STARs study, a landmark longitudinal investigation of sleep development in children aged 1–5 years.

Working closely with governments, educators, non-government organisations, communities, and philanthropic partners, Sally co-designs and translates research to inform policy, practice, and systems change. She also leads the Brain Builders Initiative, a major research and translation program focused on applying contemporary knowledge of brain development across the systems and workforces that support children and families.

Sally has authored more than 200 publications and research outputs. Her work has informed national and international policy and practice, including reforms to Australian early childhood legislation and contributions to policy recommendations from organisations including the OECD and WHO. In recognition of her research impact and science communication, she was named one of Australia's Young Tall Poppy Scientists and invited to participate in the United Nations Science Summit on Brain Health. Her overarching goal is to ensure that research is translated into practical action that helps children, families, and communities thrive.

Jaimee is an applied cultural and developmental psychologist and Principal Research Fellow at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. Her work examines human development within complex social systems with a focus on the experiences of marginalised, under-represented, and disadvantaged communities. Throughout her career she has worked to support the health and well-being of diverse minority groups (e.g. cultural, religious, gender, and sexual orientation) and those who experience inflated risk factors (e.g., exposure to violence, low socio-economic status, displacement). She is especially interested in how governance, community, and individual-level factors intersect with contemporary social issues including emerging technologies, intercultural relations, and social cohesion. Jaimee focuses on issues of social justice, peace, and equity with an emphasis on the empowerment of Indigenous, migrant and refugee background youth and families.

Jaimee has multisector research and leadership experience across the United Nations, government, and academia in Australia and Aotearoa. Most recently, she was Head of Research (Acting) at the United Nations University Institute in Macau, where she led a team examining the gender digital divide, the ethics of AI, and online violence among civil society in Asia-Pacific. Prior to that she held a senior research role at Griffith University where she led the research strategy for a large project in Logan aimed at alleviating the impacts of place-based disadvantage among diverse cultural groups. Jaimee has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods, knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder engagement, and policy advisory.

Thomas grew up in Germany and joined UQ in 1999 following postgraduate studies in New Zealand. He investigates the mental capacities in young children and in animals to answer fundamental questions about the nature and evolution of the human mind. His research has attracted several awards (incl. from the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, the Australian Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association) and his critically acclaimed books The Gap (e.g. see reviews in Nature, Science or the Wall Street Journal) and The Invention of Tomorrow (A Nature Book Reviews Best Science Pick) have been translated into several languages.

Dr Daniel Sullivan is a Clinical Psychologist and Adjunct Lecturer in the Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland. In his clinical role, Dr Sullivan leads a program of research to design Australia's first psychology extended scope of practice model of care for limited pharmacotherapy management, with an emphasis on deprescribing hypnotic medicines in the public sector sleep psychology setting (ExPEDiTe Sleep project). As a member of the Let’s Yarn about Sleep group at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Dr Sullivan is working to improve sleep health equity for First Nations Australians through community co-designed, culturally responsive sleep programs which harmonise sleep science with Indigenous Australian perspectives and knowledges about sleep.

Dr Sullivan’s research and clinical expertise is in the behavioural aspects of sleep; he is an Editor of the journal Research Directions: Sleep Psychology (Cambridge University Press) and is board certified by the US-based Board of Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Dr Sullivan completed postgraduate training in sleep at the University of Sydney (MSc), and his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University, where his doctoral research examined psychological factors involved in sleep-related headaches.

I'm a Professor of Cognitive Science at The University of Queensland, originally hailing from Alberta, Canada. I received my BASc in Philosophy and Psychology from The University of Lethbridge, my PhD in Psychology from McMaster University, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at UNSW before joining UQ in 2006.

Much of our work is at the intersection of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, exploring how generative AI can enhance learning and cognition. We're excited about the potential for these tools to provide personalised feedback, correct misconceptions, and create more engaging educational experiences.

But we’re not just focused on AI. We also explore the quirks of human thinking, particularly the biases that shape our judgments in contexts ranging from daily life to high-stakes decision-making. By unraveling these mental shortcuts, we aim to develop strategies that enable clearer thinking, more effective reasoning, and ultimately, wiser choices in the face of complexity and uncertainty.

I've been lucky to work with some truly brilliant students and collaborators over the years. It's a pleasure to come to the lab every day and tackle these fascinating questions together.

Tim is a clinical academic pharmacist and lecturer working at the School of Pharmacy and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Queensland in 2014. After working as a mental health pharmacist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, he became interested in schizophrenia and psychopharmacology. He completed his PhD with the School of Medicine in 2026 and his research interests include clozapine, treatment-resistant schizophrenia, and the safe use of antipsychotic medicines. He is the team leader of mental health pharmacy at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Tim teaches into the Bachelor of Pharmacy and the Masters of Clinical Pharmacy programmes at the University of Queensland, and supervises research project placements.

Associate Professor Jess Taubert was awarded the ARC Future Fellowship and moved to the University of Queensland in 2021. She is now a UQ Amplify Principal Research Fellow and the director of the BRISbrain lab, which focuses on understanding the neural and cognitive basis of social intelligence and face perception in humans and other animals.

She completed a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honours at Macaquarie University (2005) and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Sydney (2009) where she trained in psychophysics and cognitive science. In 2009 she accepted a postdoctoral position as a comparative psychologist at Emory University (GA, USA). Here she worked jointly with Lisa Parr at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Philippe Rochat in the Department of Psychology. In 2011 A/Prof Taubert was awarded a FSR incoming postdoctoral fellowship by UCLouvain and moved to Belgium to train as a neurophysiologist (supervised by Rufin Vogels, Wim Vanduffel, and Bruno Rossion). After briefly returning to Australia, A/Prof Taubert was appointed as an Intramural Research Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in the US (2016 – 2021). During this time she worked with Leslie Ungerleider, Chris Baker, David Leopold, and Elisabeth ("Betsy") Murray among others and she mastered neuroimaging techniques including task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

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.

Karen Thorpe is Australian Research Council, Laureate Professor and Group Leader in Child Development, Education and Care at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Her research is grounded in the understanding that early learning experiences shape brain development and are critical in establishing trajectories of health, social inclusion and learning across the lifespan. A particular focus of her work is early care and education environments including parenting, parent work, quality of care and education, and the early years workforce.

Karen leads a multi-disciplinary team of developmental scientists undertaking large scale longitudinal studies with embedded studies to explicate mechanisms that enable or limit children’s life chances. She was Foundation Psychologist on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children at the University of Bristol, UK; led the evaluation of the Preparing School Trial for Queensland Government; led the Queensland team of the E4Kids study of quality in Australian Early Education and Care and a recent data linkage project with Queensland Government to track participants through their school journey. In partnership with Queensland Government, Goodstart Early Learning and the Creche and Kindergarten Association she led a large population study of the Australian ECEC workforce (ARC Linkage). Her current research, as a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families across the life course, and through an ARC Laureate fellowship, is to examine barriers to providing high quality early learning services in developmentally vulnerable communities.

In 2013 and again in 2019 Karen was named by the Australian Financial Review as among Australia's 100 Women of Influence for the impacts of her research on educational and family policy. In 2020 she was recognised by Australian Government, Advance Global Awards for her international contribution to education. Karen chairs the Australian Early Years Reference Council for Evidence for Learning, Australia whose remit is to build a strong evidence-base in early childhood education and care with focus on translation into policy and practice. She is also director on the board of the Australian Research Council for Children and Youth and advisor to the national board of Beyond Blue – Be You.

Karen Turner is a clinical psychologist and research academic. She is Deputy Director at the Parenting and Family Support Centre. Her research activity focuses on the impact of evidence-based parenting support on child, family and community outcomes. She is a foundational co-author of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program and has published more than 50 professional manuals, parent workbooks, tip sheet series, and video programs, which are currently being used in 27 countries, in 20 languages. She has also co-written television segments and four interactive online parenting programs. She has clinical and research experience relating to parent wellbeing, child development, and the prevention and treatment of a variety of childhood behavioural and emotional problems, including work with feeding disorders, pain syndromes and conduct problems. Her research has also focused on the development and evaluation of brief primary care interventions in the prevention of behaviour disorders in children, and the dissemination of these interventions to the professional community. She has also conducted series of research into: online delivery of parenting programs; the cultural tailoring of mainstream parenting programs for Indigenous families; and enhancing the training and post-training environment for Indigenous professionals. Her current work includes further resource development for primary care settings, early education settings, and an ongoing focus on making evidence-based parenting support programs more accessible for First Nations families, and in low-resource and developing communities.

Professor Eric J. Vanman is a social psychologist and social neuroscientist whose research examines the emotional, physiological, and neural mechanisms underlying social behaviour. His work focuses on empathy, intergroup relations, and human interaction with emerging technologies, including AI, social robots, and social media.

Using experimental and psychophysiological methods such as facial EMG, EEG, and behavioural paradigms, he bridges social psychology, affective neuroscience, and the psychology of technology. A central theme of his work is understanding what human emotional responses to artificial agents reveal about the social brain.

His research has contributed to the study of implicit emotion and bias and informs contemporary debates about digital empathy, online behaviour, and the psychological impact of new technologies. He teaches and supervises across social psychology, social neuroscience, and the psychology of technology.

My research can be broadly defined as applied social psychology: the primary focus driving this research program is to test and extend important theories outside the laboratory. An extensive literature in social psychology has demonstrated that concern that one is the target of demeaning stereotypes (i.e., stereotype threat) can lead to acute performance deficits, yet there has been debate about its relevance in everyday life. My work has examined the real-world implications of stereotype threat, including what leads to these experiences for women in male-dominated professions, older employees, and men working in female-dominated professions, as well as the consequences when employees experience stereotype threat at work. This work, together with a recent meta-analysis on stereotype threat at work, was originally motivated by a broader interest in stigma and how it plays out in organisational settings.

This interest in stigma also extends to my recent work on affirmative action. Our meta-analysis shows that affirmative action programs tend to elicit negative reactions. We are now studying how these programs can be framed to reduce such backlash.

I also study burnout among community mental health and alcohol and other drug workers. The goal of our current ARC grant is to identify strategies to help build resilience.

Prof. Guy Wallis studies visual recognition and visuomotor behaviour. His investigations combine computational modelling of neural systems in the brain with data drawn from behavioural studies. Many of these behavioural studies are conducted in computer-controlled, virtual environments.

Guy holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Imperial College, London) and a PhD in Visual Neuroscience (Oxford University, UK). He joined the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences in 1998 after a three year period as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. His research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, the Human Frontier Science Program, and the Wellcome Trust, as well as through industry partnerships with the Queensland Construction Training Centre, the Australian Coal Association Research Program, Queensland Health, the US Air Force and Boeing.

• Board Director, Simulation Australasia (2025-)
• ARC Medical Research Advisory Group (2022-)
• Elected Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (2022)
• ARC College of Experts (2019-2021)
• CSIRO CSS Human Research Ethics Committee member (2020-2022)
• Director of Research, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences (2020-2025)
• ARC Future Fellowship (2011-2014)
• ARC QEII Fellowship (2003-2007)
• UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship (2001-2003)

Dr Koa Whittingham is a clinical and educational/developmental psychologist with research interests across parenting, neurodevelopmental disabilities and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Koa began her career building key empirical support for the flagship UQ program Stepping Stones Triple P for specific neurodevelopmental disabilities including autism, acquired brain injury and cerebral palsy. She has since developed an international reputation as a leader in developing and testing novel acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions to support parents, including using online/telehealth formats. Her contributions to the field of ACT-based parenting intervention were recognised by her election as a Fellow to the Assocaition for Contextual Beahvioural Science in 2023. Koa has a strong track record with over 100 papers and 6 book chapters and currently leads an MRFF testing her online intervention Parenting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (PACT) with 300 families of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities or developmental delay. She has written a self-help book for the transition to motherhood, Becoming Mum, as well as the first clinical manual on applying ACT to parenting support, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy the Clinician's Guide for Supporting Parents.