President’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in Australia
Professor Nancy Pachana FAPS
Nancy is a clinical geropsychologist and professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland (UQ), and co-director of the UQ Ageing Mind Initiative, providing a focal point for clinical, translational ageing-related research at UQ. She has an international reputation in the area of geriatric mental health, particularly with her research on late-life anxiety disorders. She is co-developer of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, used globally and translated into more than 30 languages. Nancy has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books on various topics in the field of ageing.
Her research interests include the measurement and treatment of anxiety and mood disorders in later life, social networks in later life, residential aged care, driving in later life, assistance and mobility animal use, and general health and wellbeing in later life. She has a passion for expanding research, teaching, international collaborations, and early-career scientist-practitioner support on mental health issues in later life. Nancy was elected a Fellow of the APS in 2006, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2014. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards in fields relating to ageing and is currently President of the Society of Clinical Geropsychology, part of the American Psychological Association.
Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award
Professor Alex Haslam
Alex is Professor of Psychology and formerly an Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on the study of group and identity processes in social, organisational and clinical contexts. Together with over 200 co-authors around the world, Alex has written and edited 12 books and published over 240 peer-reviewed articles on these topics. He is best known for work with Steve Reicher on the BBC Prison Study, and for work with Michelle Ryan which examines the appointment of female leaders to “glass cliffs”.
Alex is a former Chief Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology and currently Associate Editor of The Leadership Quarterly. In 2005 he won the European Association of Social Psychology’s Kurt Lewin Medal for outstanding scientific contribution, in 2013 he won the International Leadership Association’s Outstanding Leadership Book Award for The New Psychology of Leadership, and in 2016 he won the British Psychology Society Presidents’ Award for distinguished contributions to psychological knowledge. In 2017 he won the International Society for Political Psychology’s Sanford Prize for distinguished contributions to political psychology, and the APS College of Organisational Psychology’s Workplace Excellence Award for Leadership Development (with Nik Steffens and Kim Peters).
Professor Kaarin Anstey FAPS
Kaarin is Director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute, Professor of Psychology and Senior Principal Research Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Kaarin’s research programs focus on the causes, consequences and prevention of cognitive ageing, dementia, and common mental disorders. Kaarin’s postdoctoral research focused on the association between sensory function and cognitive decline, and identified strong links that could not be explained purely by peripheral factors. A second major research program over Kaarin’s career has been on older driver safety. This program initially identified cognitive and sensorimotor risk factors for unsafe driving and crashes, then risk assessment, and more recently, on researching interventions to improve older-driver skills and safety.
Kaarin leads the PATH Through Life Project, a large cohort study focussing on common mental disorders and cognitive function. Kaarin is the Chair of the International Research Network on Dementia Prevention, and a member of the Governance Committee of the Global Council on Brain Health. She won the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Early Career Award, the APS Early Career Award, the Chinion and E.W. Busse Awards from the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics and the Margret Baltes Award from the Gerontological Society of America.
Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Education Award
Professor Kathryn von Treuer FAPS
Kathryn is a health and organisational psychologist with postgraduate qualifications in psychology, business and education. Following 20 years of industry experience, Kathryn was Course Chair of the Master of Organisational Psychology at Deakin University. Her student focus and ability to devise strategies increased course reputation, student applications and graduate satisfaction. Kathryn received several teaching awards including the Vice Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching (2014). Due to Kathryn’s contribution and leadership in education in psychology, she has held the position of Executive Director of the Cairnmillar Institute since early 2016.
Kathryn’s reputation in leading and improving quality in education is well established. Her translation of education scholarship through research continues through her current leadership of an international educational research team examining professional practice competencies. Her research and innovations have been showcased through national and international presentations and publications that have the potential to influence curriculum design across the allied health sector. Kathryn’s APS service roles include National Chair of the Conference Organising Committee of the Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference in 2015, National APS College of Organisational Psychologists Committee roles, and Managing Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Organisational Psychology (2009-2013).
Media Award for Public Engagement with Psychological Science
Professor Nick Haslam
Nick is Professor of Psychology and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate) at the University of Melbourne. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. His nine books and more than 200 articles and book chapters include major contributions to the study of dehumanisation, social attitudes and psychiatric classification. His work has been influential for understanding prejudice, psychiatric stigma, dimensional models of psychopathology, and refugee mental health.
Nick writes regularly on psychological science for The Conversation and Australian Book Review, and has also written for Time, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Monthly, and two Best Australian Science Writing anthologies. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has served on the ARC College of Experts, as Head of the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and as President of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists.
Outstanding Academic Mentor Award
Professor Frank Deane MAPS
Frank is a clinical psychologist and Senior Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong. He was previously a senior lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand. He has supervised 38 doctoral students to completion and has been the research supervisor for more than 100 Masters or Honours students. Many of his students and mentees have gone on to establish successful academic careers but it is their respect and passion for the research process that Frank counts as one of his most valued mentoring outcomes. He is involved in an ongoing collaborative program of research aimed at improving assessment of psychology practitioner competencies (bit.ly/2SFMvWu). Frank’s other research interests are broadly aimed at identifying factors that improve help seeking for mental health problems and the implementation of recovery-oriented mental health and addictions services.
Early Career Research Award
Dr Fiona Kumfor MAPS
Fiona holds a Master of Clinical Neuropsychology from Macquarie University and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of New South Wales). She is currently an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellow (2016-2019), Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychologist. Fiona has more than 50 publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals including Brain, Cortex and Neuropsychologia, which have been cited more than 850 times. Her h-index is 16.
Fiona has received more than $2.2M in competitive funding to date, including an NHMRC Project Grant (CIA 2017-2019) and an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (2019-2022). She is Associate Editor for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience. Her research investigates social cognition in clinical syndromes with a focus on dementia, and aims to improve diagnosis and prognosis of dementia, while also informing neurobiological models of complex human behaviours, such as empathy and motivation.
Dr Scott Griffiths MAPS
Scott’s research is uncovering the myriad of ways that physical appearance manifests in – and impacts upon – our everyday lives, including the experience and perpetration of appearance-related discrimination (e.g., weight stigma and ageism), the use of appearance-enhancing substances (e.g., anabolic steroids) and procedures (e.g., cosmetic surgeries), and the prevention and treatment of appearance-focused psychological disorders (e.g., eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorders).
Graduating from the University of Sydney in 2016, Scott has published 74 papers, won $900,000 in research funding, and is currently employed as full-time Research Fellow in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, where he leads the Physical Appearance Research Team. Scott’s research has attracted 11 awards and recognitions, including from the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian and New Zealand and North American Academies for Eating Disorders, the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, the Bauer Media Group, the Society for Mental Health Research, and the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney.
Early Career Teaching Award
Dr Dana Wong MAPS
Dana is Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, where she teaches primarily in the postgraduate Clinical Neuropsychology program. She previously held a part-time appointment at Monash University. Driven by learner-centred approaches to training top scientist-practitioners, Dana has developed engaging skill-based teaching and assessment techniques (including neuropsychology objective structured clinical examinations; OSCEs), with consistently excellent teaching evaluations.
To address an identified gap in postgraduate training in neuropsychological interventions, Dana developed a Neurorehabilitation Clinic at Monash University which provided an innovative model for intensive, supported clinical skill development. Dana has also developed new measures for evaluating competencies in these interventions, soon to be published, which she will apply in her new eNACT clinic at La Trobe University. In recognition of her educational innovations, Dana received the 2017 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, the 2017 Dean’s Award for Educational Excellence (Innovation in Teaching), and the 2016 Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment Clinical Innovation Award.
Dr Kristen Murray MAPS
Kristen is a clinical psychologist who completed her Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology) program at the Australian National University in 2013. She is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of Canberra (UC) teaching undergraduate and postgraduate clinical and health psychology in face-to-face, asynchronous and flexible learning environments. She is Director of Clinical Psychology and External Placement Coordinator, and committed to excellence in teaching and leadership.
As a passionate educator, she employs innovative and applied teaching methods to foster a collaborative and reflective learning environment. Kristen engages students, ensures assignments align with graduate outcomes and competencies, and leads interprofessional and simulation-based training workshops at the UC. In addition, she is committed to professional development and was a member of the undergraduate psychology team who received the 2016 Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Programs that Enhance Learning. Kristen continues to work in clinical practice and research in clinical and health psychology.
Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology
Dr Kate Bartel, Flinders University
Thesis title – Protective and risk factors for adolescent sleep health
Healthy sleep is imperative for healthy adolescent functioning. Kate’s research focused on behaviours which can be altered to improve adolescents’ sleep. Meta-analytic data suggested that good sleep hygiene benefited adolescents’ sleep, yet a negative home environment and evening light were related to poorer sleep outcomes. Technology, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and pre-sleep worry had some detrimental influence on sleep, whereas parent-set bedtimes and physical activity may promote sleep health.
Experimental research demonstrated earlier lights out time and longer sleep duration while restricting weekday phone use in the hour before bed. Mindfulness at bedtime also decreased sleep latency for adolescents who took 30 minutes or longer to fall asleep. In addition to presenting at international conferences and publishing her research, Kate received awards including the 2014 Best Student Research Paper and the 2018 Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence.
Dr Stephanie Wong MAPS, Macquarie University
Thesis title – The prefrontal cortex and episodic memory in dementia syndromes
Episodic memory impairment is a common symptom in dementia. Using established and novel memory tests, combined with advanced neuroimaging techniques, the thesis examined neurocognitive mechanisms of memory impairment across different dementia syndromes. This work revealed shortfalls in using established clinical memory tests for differential diagnosis between frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease patients, who show similar memory deficits.
Findings highlighted the importance of brain regions beyond those typically associated with memory, thereby informing the development of targeted memory interventions in dementia. Six first-author publications have risen from this work, which has also received awards and funding from the Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience, ARC Centre for Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders and Dementia Australia Research Foundation. The thesis was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Commendation, David Hall Prize for Outstanding Thesis and Excellence in Higher Degree Research Award.
Dr Hannah Thomas MAPS, University of Queensland
Thesis title – Bullying and cyberbullying among Australian adolescents: Definition, prevalence, clinical correlates, and dimensional measurement
Bullying is a major public health issue for children and adolescents. This research aimed to examine the empirical approaches to the definition and measurement of bullying, and to test a method of refining current measurement approaches. This thesis examined different forms of bullying behaviour (face-to-face versus online), types of involvement (being bullied versus bullying others), as well as a range of mental health correlates. A key outcome of this thesis was the development and validation of the Bullying and Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents (BCS-A), a new self-report measurement tool.
Overall, this research provided critical input to the theoretical and methodological components relevant to strengthening interventions to reduce bullying. The work from the thesis has resulted in five peer-reviewed publications in high-quality scientific journals. The research findings have also been presented to scientific audiences nationally and internationally, as well as forums within the education and health sectors.