2016 APS Awards recipients

The APS confers a range of awards and prizes each year to honour outstanding achievements in psychology. The recipients of the 2016 APS awards are profiled below.

President’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in Australia

The Award recognises distinguished contributions to Australian psychology by psychologists at later career stages.

Mike Knowles

Dr Mike Knowles FAPS has made a significant contribution to psychology principally in two domains, one local and the other international. In the local domain, Mike is known for his contribution in two areas. The first of these is his involvement in teaching and research, primarily concerned with identifying what is distinctive about psychology in Australia. The second area involves his contributions to the APS, through being Treasurer and then President. His involvement with the APS was directed at building a strong and viable Society, financially, collegiately and professionally.

The international domain involved holding the posts of Secretary General and President of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) in which, among many other things, an underlying interest was to strengthen and deepen the participation of Australian psychologists in the activities of the Association. Due in part to the efforts of many, this has led to a range of major outcomes including the continuously increasing membership of Australian psychologists in IAAP, their ever increasing attendance at the Association’s congresses, and the Society’s hosting of IAAP’s 2010 congress in Melbourne. In focusing his efforts in these endeavours, Mike had two strategies. One was explicit – to give Australia a voice in the governance of international psychology. The other was implicit, and aimed to work toward enabling Australia to contribute to the content of mainstream psychology.

Mike has previously received other distinguished awards including a Faculty Teaching Award from Monash University, the Elton Mayo Award from the APS, awards from both Division 1 and Division 52 of the American Psychological Association, the Fukuhara Research and Service Award of the International Council of Psychologists, and a Certificate of Honour from IAAP.

Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award

The Award recognises distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to psychology at mid or later career stages.

Pat Michie

Emeritus Professor Pat Michie MAPS, from the University of Newcastle, is an experimental psychologist whose research has focused on the neural basis of normal and abnormal cognition. She has in excess of 7500 Scopus citations from 150 peer-reviewed publications and has been awarded approximately $9 million in national competitive grants. Pat is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Her research has been characterised by the application of theories and methodologies from basic research in cognition and cognitive neuroscience to understand the nature of cognitive deficits and their neural basis in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and those at risk.

Pat's research spans auditory processing deficits, impaired inhibitory control and cognitive control more generally and uses both psychophysical methods to assess performance as well as functional brain imaging methods such as event-related potentials (ERPs) of the brain. Pat was a key member of the Australian group who were the first to demonstrate that individuals with schizophrenia exhibit impaired automatic change detection in a background of auditory regularities, an ERP-derived observation replicated many times and one of the most robust findings in the schizophrenia literature. She has published a number of seminal papers on ERP indices of attention and change detection.

Pat currently chairs the National Committee of Brain and Mind (NCBM) of the Academy of Sciences and the Australian Brain Alliance, an initiative of the NCBM and the Academy. The Alliance, which is supported by the Australian Psychological Society, the Australasian Neuroscience Society and major research organisations, aims to secure investment in Australian brain research comparable to other international initiatives.

Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Education Award

The Award recognises outstanding contribution to the education of psychologists in Australia over an extended period.

Lorelle Burton

Lorelle Burton MAPS is Professor of Psychology in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). She currently leads the Community Futures research program in the Institute for Resilient Regions at USQ and has extensive experience as principal supervisor of research higher degree and Honours students. Lorelle has received multiple teaching excellence awards including the 2001 USQ Award for Teaching Excellence, the 2004 Pearson Education and APS Early Career Teaching Award, an inaugural 2006 Carrick Citation for “delivering nationally recognised teaching practices and resources that inspire first-year students to actively engage in learning processes and develop critical thinking skills”, and an individual Carrick Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences.

Lorelle has led national research projects in learning and teaching, has served on national committees and boards, and has been an invited assessor for the national awards and grants. Lorelle has authored multiple psychology textbooks, including the market-leading first-year Australian psychology textbook and a widely adopted textbook about writing essays and research reports in psychology. She also recently co-edited a book on the elements of applied psychological practice to help psychology graduates prepare for the national psychology exam. Lorelle’s current research extends beyond academia to promote community-based learning and well-being. She works collaboratively with marginalised groups, including youth and older people, and her team is currently developing an Indigenous cultural heritage trail in partnership with Aboriginal communities in south-west Queensland. The Community Futures research seeks people’s own stories as a powerful way to strengthen communities and find new paths to support them into the future.

Media Award for Public Engagement in Psychological Science

The Award recognises an outstanding individual who has given a public voice to psychological science through the communication of high-quality research or the promotion of psychological science more generally to the public.

Mark Dadds

Professor Mark Dadds is a Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia and Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney. He is Director of the Child Behaviour Research Clinic which develops state-of-the-art treatments for children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems, and has developed and directed several national intervention programs for children, youth, and their families at risk for mental health problems.

Mark has been National President of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy and Professor of Parenting Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He has authored four books and more than 200 papers on child and family psychology. He also practises as a child clinical psychologist and has been the subject of several television specials. In 2014, his innovative treatment for early-onset aggressive behaviour was featured in the ABC documentary ‘Kids on Speed?’

Early Career Research Award

The Award recognises excellence in scientific achievement in psychology among psychologists at an early-career stage.

Rohan Borschmann

Dr Rohan Borschmann MAPS is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Research Fellow in the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne. A former prison psychologist in QLD, he has a particular interest in self-harm and substance use among marginalised populations. Rohan has a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. Rohan has experience working in the public and private sectors in direct service provision, secondary consultation, research, health promotion and community education. He has conducted research in Australia, Canada and the UK, and has presented his research findings at conferences in Brazil, Italy, South Africa, the USA, the UK and Australia.

Rohan has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and his articles have been published in a range of top-tiered journals including The Lancet, BMJ, The British Journal of Psychiatry, The Lancet Psychiatry and in The Cochrane Library. He has secured more than $1.4 million in competitive funding since 2013, including a four-year Early Career Fellowship from the NHMRC to examine suicide and self-harm in justice-involved populations and other marginalised groups. In 2015, Rohan was named the Early Career Researcher of the Year by the Society for Mental Health Research, an organisation representing Australian and New Zealand researchers.

Nicole Lovato

Dr Nicole Lovato MAPS has a research interest in the basic and clinical aspects of sleep, circadian rhythms and sleep disturbances, including insomnia. She has a strong interest in identifying the aetiology of sleep disorders and associated mental health problems, such as depression, with a view to use this knowledge to improve the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders in a transdiagnostic manner. She has managed several large programs of clinical research targeted at understanding the basic aspects of sleep and applying this knowledge using a clinical framework to improve the early intervention, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and associated mental health problems, including but not limited to depression and anxiety. Other projects have been focused on the use of cognitive-behavioural strategies and other non-pharmacological treatment options for chronic insomnia.

Nicole currently has 30 research publications (half as first author) in high-quality journals and has presented her work prolifically, including via invited presentations at national and international conferences. She has received a total of $1.5 million in grant funding. Nicole is the recipient of several awards including the Young Tall Poppy Award 2016, Vice Chancellor’s Award for Early Career Researcher 2014, and the Career Development Award 2014 from the Australasian Sleep Association.

Simon Rice

Dr Simon Rice MAPS is a clinical psychologist and researcher based at Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. He also holds a clinical position in the Youth Mood Clinic at Orygen Youth Health, a tertiary mental health service for young people experiencing complex depression and suicidality. Simon’s research interests focus on three main areas: men’s mental health, e-mental health, and treatment innovation in youth mental health. Simon led the development of the first multidimensional screening tool assessing depression risk in men. The tool has been used internationally and cross-validated in Australian and Canadian samples in assessing often missed symptom domains underlying men’s distress.

Simon is currently working on models to better engage young men at risk of mental ill-health through novel online interventions, and is also an active researcher in the area of youth suicide prevention, leading a number of related e-mental health projects. His work has received national and international recognition, with support from competitive fellowships and grants including the Movember Foundation, the Society for Mental Health Research, the HCF Research Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology

The Award recognises outstanding research in psychology by students who have recently completed a PhD at an Australian university.

Kelly-Ann Allen

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Graduate School of Education

Thesis title – In Pursuit of Belonging: A socio-ecological perspective of school belonging in secondary school settings

Dr Kelly Allen MAPS used a socio-ecological perspective to explore factors that fostered school belonging. Using a mixed method approach, including meta-analysis, findings revealed that school belonging was a priority of over half of the schools. Furthermore, she found that the themes of academic motivation, mental health, social and emotional competencies, teacher, parent, and peer support, reported medium to large effect sizes with school belonging, indicating that all themes were relevant and important factors for fostering belonging in schools. This thesis was awarded the 2016 Psychology of Relationships Thesis Award and the Doctoral Training Seminar Stipend Award.

Jasmine Fardouly

University of New South Wales

Thesis title – The impact of appearance comparisons through social media on young women’s body image

Dr Jasmine Fardouly MAPS was the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Postgraduate Research Award from the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists. Her thesis highlights the importance of appearance comparisons in the link between social media and body image. Correlational studies showed that comparisons mediated the relationship between Facebook usage and appearance concerns, an experimental study showed that women with a higher tendency to make appearance comparisons reported more appearance concerns after browsing Facebook, and an Ecological Momentary Assessment study found that social media comparisons were particularly harmful to women’s body image. This research resulted in five highly cited publications and gained worldwide media coverage.

Travis Wearne

Macquarie University

Thesis title – Inhibitory regulation of the prefrontal cortex in an animal model of methamphetamine behavioural sensitization: Implications for chronic psychoses

The thesis by Dr Travis Warne MAPS focused on a hypothesis in the development of psychotic disorders – alternations to neural inhibitory (GABA) systems. This thesis provided a multi-method evaluation of whether methamphetamine (‘ice’) – a psychosis inducing drug – alters the GABA system similarly to that reported in schizophrenia. Findings suggest that while GABA neurotransmission is adaptive in the prefrontal cortex, methamphetamine psychosis may be associated with a distinct neuropathology compared to other psychotic disorders. This thesis was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation from Macquarie University.