This year’s conference will host internationally known keynote speakers and who will be delivering presentations on vital matters in behavioural health and medicine, and will host a number of innovative presentations, posters, and workshops, as well as an insightful debate. We welcome your abstract submissions to present at the conference across a wide range of tracks.

We are currently still working on putting together the exciting program for the 2022 conference. Keep an eye out for more information to be posted here shortly.

Professor Wendy Wood

Working Title: Overlooking the Habit in Our Health

Bio: Wendy Wood is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California and author of the book, Good Habits, Bad Habits. For the past 30 years, her research has explored the nature of habits and why they are so hard to change. Her work identifies basic psychological principles of habit formation and change and applies them to maintaining health and other life challenges. She has published over 100 articles in scientific journals, edited Psychological Review, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and American Psychologist, and her work has received numerous recognitions, most recently the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in Attitudes and Social Influence from SPSP. Along with her graduate students, she invites you to join the monthly Talks and Discussions about Habits (TA-DAH!) series.

Professor Cecile Thøgersen-Ntoumani

Working Title: A step in the right direction: The premise of walking to promote health and well-being

Bio: Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani is Professor of Psychology of Physical Activity and Health in the Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark. She is a behavioural scientist with expertise in motivation for physical activity behaviour change. Her research is focused on designing, implementing and evaluating physical activity interventions that can be sustained long-term, and assessing their effects on health and well-being in physically inactive individuals across the lifespan. She has published 114 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and 5 book chapters. Her research has attracted over 8600 citations in Google Scholar (h index=41). Her research has been published in highly prestigious journals, such as Behavioural & Brain Sciences (17.333), Annals of Behavioural Medicine (IF=4.908), Health Psychology (IF=3.530), Perspectives on Psychological Science (IF=9.305), Journal of Environmental Psychology (IF=5.192), The Gerontologist (IF=5.271) and Health Psychology Review (IF=7.182). Read more

Professor Tim Spector

Working Title: Why have we got so much about nutrition wrong?

Bio: Tim Spector is a medically qualified Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the TwinsUK registry at King’s College London. His current work focuses on the microbiome and nutrition, and he is co-founder of the data science company ZOE Ltd which has commercialised a home kit for personalised nutrition . He also the lead researcher behind the world’s biggest citizen science health project – the ZOE Covid  study of over 4 million people for which he was awarded an OBE. Having published more than 900 research articles, he is ranked in the top 100 of the world’s most cited scientists by Google. He is the author of four popular science books, including “The Diet Myth” and the most recent “Spoon Fed” which is a Sunday Times bestseller. He makes regular appearances on social and mainstream media.

Professor Blake Dear

Working Title: Psychological interventions for adults with chronic health conditions: results from recent trials of an internet-delivered and transdiagnostic intervention

Bio: Blake Dear is a professor and clinical psychologist within the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University. He is a Director of the eCentreClinic (www.ecentreclinic.org), a research unit that develops and evaluates psychological treatments for common mental health and chronic physical health conditions. He also currently holds a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leader Fellowship. Professor Dear’s research interests focus on using technology to improve access to psychological treatment – knowing many people experience significant barriers care. He is interested in treatments that support people with significant physical health conditions, including chronic pain, chronic kidney disease, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and various gastrointestinal disorders and diseases. His research also focuses on how technologically-delivered psychological treatments can be implemented and used within routine care settings (e.g., specialist hospital clinics, community mental health clinics, university counselling services) to improve access to and the reach of those services.

Dr Camille Short

Working Title: Designing and delivering digital behaviour change tools to support cancer patients adopt and maintain exercise  Read more

Bio: Dr Short is a behavioural scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne with expertise in behaviour change, digital and public health. She is jointly appointed between the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences and Melbourne School of Health Sciences to drive interdisciplinary research in behaviour change. Her research program focuses on the use of technology for improving access to high quality, personalised, and multidisciplinary health services, especially for individuals with chronic and complex health issues. Funded by the Victoria Cancer Agency and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, she is currently leading a program of work focused on the development and optimisation of remotely delivered exercise interventions for cancer recovery. She has published 90 peer-reviewed publications, attracted over 2 million dollars in competitive research grants and is committed to working closely with consumers and clinicians to translate her research findings into practice.  

Dr Jonathan Bullen

Working Title: Indigenous Curriculum, transformative learning: what is known, and what do we need to know?

Bio: Dr Jonathan Bullen (PhD) is a Wardandi Noongar from WA’s south-west. He is Senior Lecturer within Curtin Medical School where he leads the teaching, embedding and integration of Indigenous curriculum across the five years of the MBBS. He is also the Platform Lead for Aboriginal Health & Wellbeing Research in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Chair of Curtin’s Indigenous Leadership. His professional role and research has a focus on both the development of non-Indigenous health professional’s capabilities to effectively work with Indigenous Australians in health contexts, and associations between the physiological and psychological health of Indigenous Australians. His education-specific research has a focus on drivers of, and outcomes from, transformative learning in the Indigenous curriculum space, the conceptualisation of more appropriate Indigenous curriculum quality metrics and Indigenous led models of institutional decolonisation.