University of California, Irvine
California USA
Dr Steven C. Cramer is a Professor of Neurology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of California, Irvine. He is also the Clinical Director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center and Associate Director of the UC Irvine Institute for Clinical & Translational Science at UC Irvine, and co-PI of the NIH StrokeNet. Dr Cramer graduated with Highest Honors from University of California, Berkeley; received his medical degree from University of Southern California; did a residency in internal medicine at UCLA; and did a residency in neurology plus and a fellowship in cerebrovascular disease at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also earned a Masters Degree in Clinical Investigation from Harvard Medical School.
His research focuses on neural repair after central nervous system injury in humans, with an emphasis on stroke and recovery of movement. Treatments examined include robotic, stem cell, brain stimulation, biologic, drug, and telehealth methods. A major emphasis is on translating new drugs and devices to reduce disability after stroke, and on individualizing therapy for each person’s needs. Dr Cramer co-edited the book “Brain Repair after Stroke” and is the author of over 250 manuscripts.
Aalborg University
Denmark
Thomas Graven-Nielsen received his M.Sc.EE degree within Biomedical Engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark, in 1994 and acquired his Ph.D. within Biomedical Science and Engineering in 1997 (Aalborg University). In 2006 he obtained a Doctoral degree in Medical Science (Copenhagen University). He is Director at Center for Neuroplasticity and Pain (CNAP), SMI, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark (since 2015), and full professor in Pain Neuroscience at SMI, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark (since 2008). Adjunct Professor at University of Western Sydney, Australia (since 2015), and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia (since 2004). Head of Research within the Department of Health Science and Technology. Head of the International Doctoral School in Medicine, Biomedical Science and Technology, Aalborg University (110+ students enrolled) since 2006.
His research focuses on translational studies of musculoskeletal pain bridging the gap between basic animal findings and clinical manifestations of pain. Development of pain models, bio-markers and assessment technologies are key biomedical tools for the translational studies. The core area is muscle pain, referred pain, deep-tissue hyperalgesia, pharmacological screening, and electrophysiological techniques to assess muscle pain physiology. He has published 200+ scientific peer-reviewed papers and received several awards. He reviews papers on a regular basis for high-ranked journals, has presented as keynote speaker at several international conferences, and organised scientific workshops and symposia at international meetings. More than 10 national and international collaborations on translational pain research have been established including research groups in Sweden, UK, Japan, USA and Australia. Several international guest professors have worked with Dr. Graven-Nielsen in his laboratory facilities.
Centre for Rehabilitation Research & Development
Ottawa Canada
Dr Edward Lemaire, is actively involved with research on technologies that improve mobility for people with physical disabilities. He is a Senior Investigator at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Development; Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine; and Adjunct Professor in Human Kinetics, Mechanical Engineering, and Systems Design Engineering. He is also active with the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics, as a board member, international congress chairman, and incoming president.
Dr Lemaire’s research has resulted in over 450 published papers and presentations that include intelligent prosthetics and orthotics, biomechanical walking analysis in 3D virtual environments, smartphone approaches to improve decision-making, and eHealth technology to enhance access to education and rehabilitation services.
NSW Australia
Professor Bogduk is Emeritus Professor of Pain Medicine at the University of Newcastle. He retired in 2014 after 40 years as an academic and physician. His research pursued the anatomical basis of interventional diagnostic and treatment procedures for spinal pain and headache, and the validation of those procedures in clinical trials. He has published and tested guidelines for the management of musculoskeletal pain in primary care, and in tertiary referral settings. In retirement he remains active as a Senior Editor of Pain Medicine, and a consultant to the Spine Intervention Society. Otherwise he is busy in the NSW State Emergency Services and on his private conservation property.
Monash University
VIC Australia
Associate Professor Craig Hassed works at the Department of General Practice and is coordinator of mindfulness programs at Monash University. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness-based stress management, mind-body medicine, meditation, health promotion, integrative medicine and medical ethics. Craig is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas in health, professional and educational contexts. He was the founding president of the Australian Teachers of Meditation Association and is a regular media commentator. He writes regularly for medical journals and has published twelve books;
Associate Professor Hassed also featured in the documentary, The Connection and wrote the companion e-book, “The Mindfulness Manual” and co-authored with Richard Chambers the free online Mindfulness course in collaboration with Monash University and FutureLearn.
Griffith University
QLD Australia
2017 Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim is a neuroscientist and stem cell scientist. His research career has focused on how the sensory neurons in the nose are replaced and regenerated from stem cells. He is a world leader in spinal cord injury research. He led the Brisbane team in a world-first clinical trial in which the patient’s own olfactory cells were transplanted into their injured spinal cord in the first stages of a therapy to treat human paraplegia. Alan established the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research in 2006. He developed an adult stem cell bank from over 300 people with different neurological conditions including schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, mitochondrial mutation disorders, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, ataxia telangiectasia and motor neuron disease. These stem cells are used to identify the biological bases of neurological diseases using genomics, proteomics and cell function assays and this work is leading to new drug therapies.
University of South Australia
SA Australia
Professor Lorimer Moseley is a pain scientist and physiotherapist. He has written 270 articles and six books, including Explain Pain (with David Butler) and Painful Yarns - the two highest selling pain books internationally. He has obtained over $20 million in research funding. His papers have been downloaded 60,000 times on Researchgate alone, putting him in the top 0.1% of scientists worldwide and his research group’s outreach activities have been read or viewed by over 3 million people in 100 countries. He has given 65 plenary lectures at major international meetings in 26 countries, including the World, European, American and British Pain Congresses. He won the inaugural Clinical Science Prize from the International Association for the Study of Pain, was runner-up in the 2012 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Sciences and won the 2012 Marshall & Warren Award from the NHMRC.
Professor Moseley is an honoured member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, its highest honour. His contributions to the field have been honoured by prizes from pain or physiotherapy associations in 12 countries including the Canadian Pain Society Mary Ellen Jeans and the British Pain Society Patrick Wall Prizes. Expertscape ranks Prof Moseley 1st in Australia for chronic pain and 2nd internationally for complex regional pain syndrome.
University of Melbourne
VIC
Professor Felicity Baker is Co-Director of the National Music Therapy Research Unit at The University of Melbourne. She is a former Australia Research Council Future Fellow and currently holds an Australia Research Council Discovery Project grant to test the effectiveness of a songwriting intervention on the identity and emotional wellbeing of people with acquired neurodisabilities. Felicity has over $2.8million in research funding, has published 5 books including a Clinicians Manual for the use of Music Therapy Interventions in Neurorehabilitation, and over 100 peer reviewed articles. She is the past President of the Australian Music Therapy Association, and currently Associate Editor for the flagship journal "Journal of Music Therapy". In 2017, Felicity received the 2nd World Federation of Music Therapy Research Award. Felicity has pioneered many music therapy interventions for adults with acquired brain injury and has been invited to conduct workshops on these methods in Asia, US, South America, and Europe. Felicity is passionate about promoting the value of music therapy in helping people across the lifespan to live life more fully.
La Trobe University
VIC
Leeanne Carey is Professor and Discipline Lead of Occupational Therapy in the School of Allied Health, La Trobe University and Founding Head of the Neurorehabilitation and Recovery research group, Stroke Division, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. Professor Carey’s research program focuses on stroke rehabilitation and recovery: in particular how the brain adapts and how we might harness that potential in rehabilitation. She has developed a successful, neuroscience-based approach to help stroke survivors regain a sense of touch so that they can use their hands more effectively in daily activities. She uses tools such as MRI to investigate changes in the brain and how this knowledge may be used to better understand recovery and target rehabilitation. Research includes the impact of depression and cognition on stroke recovery. An important focus has been to translate these discoveries into clinical practice and better outcomes for stroke survivors.
St Vincent's Hospital
NSW
A/Prof Faux is an Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at UNSW and University of Notre Dame. He has taken a number of leadership roles in state and national organisation including as chairperson of the Rehabilitation Medicine Advisory group of the 1017 National Stroke guidelines in Rehabilitation and Recovery, The inaugaural private Practice Special Interest group for the RMSANZ and the NSW Branch of the AFRM. He has a special interest in refugee health and a strong commitment to the development of clinical skill in rehabilitation medicine vocational trainees, initiating and teaching Australia's first Exam preparation course for AFRM fellowship.
Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne
VIC
Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute
NSW
Dr Cathy Morgan is a Research Fellow at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute at The University of Sydney. She is a physiotherapist with over 25 years of experience in paediatrics having worked as a clinician for NSW Health, ADHC and Cerebral Palsy Alliance. Over the last 5 years she has pursued a research career and completed her PhD on the topic of early detection and early intervention using motor training and environmetnal enrichment for infants with cerebral palsy. She has conducted two RCTs of early intervention in cerebral palsy using GAME intervention and recently received an NHMRC project grant to test this intervention approach in a large multicentre RCT. Cathy collaborates with the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network in an ongoing research project establishing the sensitivity and specificity of the General Movements Assessment for detecting CP in an Australian context. She is a member and network coordinator of the International Steering Group of IMPACT for CP and coordinates a network of clinicians and researchers focused on improving the early detection of cerebral palsy in high risk infants in NSW, Australia. She has published 14 peer reviewed papers and three book chapters. Dr Morgan is a Board Director of the Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.
Hunter Medical Research Institute
NSW
Professor Nilsson is the Executive Director of Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), Newcastle, Burges Professor of Medical Science at the University of Newcastle and Staff Specialist in Rehabilitation Medicine at Hunter New England Health, Newcastle, Australia. Prior to his current appointment, Professor Nilsson held a position as Director of Research and Development at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, Northern Europe’s largest University Hospital. Professor Nilsson a senior specialist in rehabilitation medicine with a strong translational research platform in stroke and basic neuroscience His research focuses on mechanisms underpinning neuroprotection, brain plasticity and neural repair with special emphasis on the functions of glial cells and stress-related mechanisms. He is also exploring the effects of enriched environment on stroke recovery in both animal models and clinical trials. Recently, he was the principal investigator of a pioneering interdisciplinary Swedish research program, The Culture and Brain Health Initiative, which included studies on the effects of cardiovascular exercise, music, rhythm and dance, design, architecture on brain resilience, cognition and motor skills in healthy individuals and stroke survivors. During the course of his career, Professor Nilsson has implemented new models of care in neuro-rehabilitation and has led international accreditation projects for rehabilitation services, which rendered him and his team recognition for outstanding service delivery in rehabilitation and translational neuroscience. Professor Nilsson is currently chief investigator and co-lead on an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in stroke rehabilitation and brain recovery.
AROC
NSW
Frances Simmonds is a Senior Research Fellow with the Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI) at the University of Wollongong, one of the largest and best known Health Services Research Centres in Australia. Her primary role is as the Director of AROC, the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre, the Australian and New Zealand national rehabilitation clinical registry, but she is also involved in other AHSRI projects. Frances’ career within the health industry has spanned some 25 plus years, during which time she has held senior executive roles in the private and not-for-profit sectors before returning to research and academia at the University of Wollongong.
