Stanford University
USA
Professor Beth Darnall, PhD is Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. She is principal investigator for $13M in federally funded pain and opioid reduction research projects that test the e ectiveness and mechanisms of psychological strategies in individuals with chronic pain.
She investigates mechanisms of pain catastrophising, targeted pain psychology treatments she has developed, prevention of post- surgical pain, and patient-centered outpatient opioid tapering.
Aarhus University
Denmark
Dr Nanna Brix Finnerup (MD, DrMedSc) is Professor in pain research at the Danish Pain Research Centre, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Since 1998 she has worked at the Danish Pain Research Center at Aarhus University. She obtained her degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences from Aarhus University in 2008, and is currently Professor at the Danish Pain Research Center.
Her main research interest is the pathophysiology and therapy of neuropathic pain.
University of Colorado
USA
Tor Wager is Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Since 2010, he has directed Boulder’s Cognitive and Active Neuroscience laboratory. Much of the lab’s work centers on the neurophysiology of pain and emotion and how they are shaped by cognitive and social influences. In particular, he is interested in how thoughts and beliefs influence aversive experiences, learning, and brain-body communication.
University of Sydney
NSW
Ben Colagiuri is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. He received his PhD in Psychology in 2010 from the same School. His research aims to understand how expectancies shape health outcomes via placebo and nocebo effects. To date, he has developed a number of novel experimental models to uncover the mechanisms of placebo and nocebo effects for pain, sleep, nausea, and related conditions.
He has been awarded multiple ARC Discovery grants, published over 45 scientific papers, and received state and national recognition for his research, including the Australian Psychological Society Early Career Research Award 2014 and NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award 2015.
His current research is exploring how knowledge about placebo and nocebo effects could be used ethically to improve patient outcomes in pain and other conditions.
University of Newcastle
NSW
Professor Clare Collins is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow, Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics and Director of Research for the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine and Deputy Director, Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
In 2017 Professor Collins was awarded the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s researcher of the Year. Professor Collins has published over 300 manuscripts and supervised 25 Higher Degree Research candidates to completion. She leads the largest team of dietitian researchers internationally, in assessing dietary intake and evaluating the impact of food and nutrition on eating patterns and diet-related health across key life stages and chronic disease conditions. Her team’s research focusses on using smart technologies to achieve this.
Professor Collins is a Fellow of the Dietitians Association of Australian (DAA) and represented DAA in an international Practice Based Evidence in Nutrition collaboration with Dietitians of Canada and the British Dietetic Association. Professor Collins was a team leader on the evidence reviews conducted by the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) that informed the revision of the 2013 NHMRC Australian Dietary Guidelines. She served on the Australia and New Zealand (ANZOS) council for 6 years, with 2 years as Vice President (2007-08). Professor Collins chaired development of DAA’s Best Practice Dietetic Guidelines for the Management of Adult Overweight and Obesity and led the University of Newcastle and DAA reference group in the 2011 update. She is currently a member of the Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee for the Heart Foundation Australia and led the review that inform their position paper on dietary patterns for heart health. She is a member of the Commonwealth Department of Health’s, Healthy Food Partnership Working Party developing an engagement strategy to improve Australian dietary habits by raising awareness of better food choices and making healthier food choices more accessible.
Professor Collins was a clinical paediatric dietitian at John Hunter Children’s Hospital, NSW for over 20 years. She is passionate about nutrition communication and has conducted over 1800 media interviews. She has been a DAA media spokesperson for 18 years and wrote for the Newcastle Herald for over 25 years. As a sought after nutrition commentator she has demystified nutrition and health science across the media from Dr Karl and Triple J, to TV including Sunrise, and The Circle; to magazines and newspapers internationally. She has contributed over 50 nutrition articles for The Conversation, with over 5 million readers.
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The University of Queensland
QLD
Dr. Day completed her MA(Clin) and PhD at the University of Alabama, followed by her Clinical Psychology residency at the University of Washington. Dr. Day then undertook a post-doctoral research fellowship in pain psychology, also at the University of Washington. She is now a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Australia and most recently, was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellowship, which she is completing within the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, where she is also a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Day’s program of research has focused on implementing randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain conditions. She recently published a sole authored book with Wiley titled, “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Clinical Manual and Guide”.
Monash University
VIC
Associate Professor Michael Farrell is a member of the Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences at Monash University, and he is the Associate Director of Monash Biomedical Imaging. Michael is a neuroscientist with an interest in regional brain responses associated with interoception. His research has included, but is not limited to studies of pain. Studies from his group have addressed diverse sensations including thirst, the urge-to-cough, sexual arousal, and temperature, as well as associated motor responses including swallowing control, coughing and thermoregulation.
Macquarie University
NSW
Julia Hush is an Associate Professor of Physiotherapy in the Department of Health Professions at Macquarie University, where she is also Department Director of Research. Her main area of clinical expertise is pain management. Her current research program includes clinical pain neuroscience, paediatric pain, personalised pain treatment for low back pain, neuropathic pain and exercise-induced analgesia. A/Prof Hush’s current work in health science is founded on a decade of basic science research, during which time she made discoveries in the field of cell science.
Julia has attained over $1.7M in research funding, including grants from the ARC, NHMRC and IASP. With an H-index of 26, Julia has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Cell Science, Pain, Cerebral Cortex, Clinical Journal of Pain, Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, European Spine Journal, and Journal of Physiotherapy. She is a Section Editor for the Journal of Physiotherapy and is a reviewer for over 20 international journals, including New England Journal of Medicine and Annals of Internal Medicine.
Since 2012, Julia has been engaged in the development and delivery of a new entry-level Doctor of Physiotherapy program at Macquarie University. Her areas of teaching expertise include clinical pain science, evidence-based healthcare and musculoskeletal physiotherapy. She has led the integration of the IASP Pain Curriculum into the Doctor of Physiotherapy program. Since January 2016 she has worked part-time (0.6FTE).
NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation
NSW
Jenni is a physiotherapist by back ground. For the last 15 years has been involved with implementing models of care. The NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation established the pain network in 2010. Since that time, Jenni has been working to implement the NSW pain plan and improve access to evidence based pain management service delivery.
The University of Queensland
QLD Australia
Glenn is currently Professor and NHMRC Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), University of Queensland.
Glenn grew up in Sydney, where he completed his PhD studies at the University Sydney before postdoctoral studies at the University of Oxford. After academic appointments at the University of Sydney and the University of Connecticut, he joined the IMB in 2007. Glenn’s interest lies in using animal venoms to explore the molecular architecture of nociceptive pathways in order to develop novel pain therapies. He has published three coauthored books, 19 book chapters, and 240 journal articles.
Recent awards include the 2013 Beckman Coulter Discovery Science Award from the Australian Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, 2013 ASB Sir Rutherford Robertson Award from the Australian Society for Biophysics (ASB), 2015 Medal of the Australian & New Zealand Society for Magnetic Resonance (ANZMAG), and the 2016 IMB Impact Award for Discovery & Innovation.
Glenn is a former President of ASB, former Chair of ANZMAG, and he has been an elected member of the Executive Council of the International Society for Toxinology since 2012.
In his limited spare time, Glenn rides his road bike and plays guitar badly.
The University Of Sydney
NSW Australia
Associate Professor Christine Lin is a principal research fellow at the Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney and the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health. She is a clinical trialist whose expertise is in investigating the effectiveness of treatments for musculoskeletal conditions, particularly in the pharmacological management of back pain. She holds a career development fellowship from the NHMRC.
Christine has 120 publications, including in prestigious journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA and BMJ. She has attracted $8.3 million in competitive grant funding, including continuous funding from NHMRC since 2009. In 2018, she won Finalist in ACTA (Australian Clinical Trials Alliance) Trial of the Year for her trial of pregabalin in people with sciatica. Christine’s research has changed the guideline recommendations on the pharmacological management of back pain.