Gemma leads the Body Image & Eating Disorders Research Group in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University. She is currently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 2 Fellow (2023-2027) and a former NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow (2018-2022).

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology (University of Adelaide), Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Microbiology and Immunology (University of Adelaide), a Masters degree in Oncology (University of Cambridge), a Diploma in Languages in Japanese (University of Adelaide), a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (University of Adelaide), a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences Honours degree in Psychology (Flinders University) and a PhD in Clinical Psychology (Flinders University). Her research career in both Medical Science and Mental Health has seen her study and work in Australia, Japan and the UK.

Gemma was awarded a PhD from Flinders University in Adelaide in 2017 which investigated the psychological predictors and outcomes of female genital body image concerns and cosmetic genital surgery. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate and Academic at Curtin University in Perth and extended this genital self-image research to other genders. She continues this genital self-image research program across the gender spectrum.

Gemma then commenced an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship at Monash University (2018-2022) and more recently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 2 Fellowship (2023-2027). Gemma and her Body Image & Eating Disorders Research Group investigate the factors leading to body image concerns and eating disorders and novel therapeutic interventions using digital technologies (such as chatbots and mobile apps) to address these concerns. Gemma has led collaborative technical projects with national eating disorder support organisations across the globe.

Gemma’s research has received extensive coverage on mainstream media and she makes regular appearances on television. She was named one of ABC Radio National’s Top 5 Under 40 Scientists in 2017 and also was invited to deliver a TED talk in Brisbane in 2017. More recently, she won the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (2022), Club Melbourne Fellowship (2022), Rising Star for the Association for Psychological Science (2021), two time national finalist for the Bupa Health Foundation Emerging Researcher Award (2021, 2019), Flinders Universiry Early Career Alumni Awardee (2021), one of The Educator’s Rising Stars (2020), Australian Psychological Society Early Career Researcher Awardee (2020), a national finalist for a Eureka Prize (2020), received a national AMP Tomorrow Maker Award (2019), and was a Young Tall Poppy Award winner for Victoria (2018). She also served as a host on Melbourne radio Triple R Radiotherapy program (2018-2022) and continues to make regular appearances on Triple R programs.

In addition, Gemma is a registered clinical psychologist and has had clinical experience in the public and private sectors in Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. She led her own private practice from 2019 to 2022 and is currently the Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Statewide Women’s Mental Health Service at Alfred Health. She is a Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician (CEDC) and a Board Approved Supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia. She formerly served on the Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED) Executive Committee as well as the Chairperson of the ANZAED Membership Committee. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Australian Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ASPOG).

You can follow Gemma’s latest research and other activities on Twitter @gemmasharp11

Cognition abilities are critical to educational and occupational achievement, daily function, and even movement. Unfortunately, cognitive performance declines on average in late life and the prevalence of dementia nearly doubles every five years after the age of 65 years. My research identifies has two focuses: 1) to optimize cognition across the life course and to prevent dementia in late life; 2) to promote strategies to ‘live well’ with dementia. In particular, I investigate the role of physical activity in the prevention of dementia and improvement of well-being among people living with dementia.

An Affiliate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University, and former Chief Research & KTE Officer at the Alzheimer Society of Canada, Dr. Sivananthan is an accomplished international strategy and policy advisor on dementia care.

She oversaw a tripling of the Alzheimer Society Research program funding, a dementia research priority setting leader and the only research funder who engages people living with dementia in all aspects of research. She is co-lead for the inaugural non-pharmacological interventions working group of the Canadian Consensus Guidelines on Dementia which developed the first Canadian recommendations on psycho-social interventions for the management and treatment of dementia.

She is a neuroscientist and health data scientist who has focused her work on dementia care.

In 2020, she was appointed by the Federal Minister of Health to the ministerial advisory board on dementia. Previously, Dr. Sivananthan served as a senior strategy and policy advisor consulting for the World Health Organization (WHO) on its global dementia strategy. She co-drafted the WHO’s Global Action Plan on the Public Health Response to Dementia.

Dr. Sivananthan earned her PhD from the University of British Columbia.

My foremost passion is to explore the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of metabolic therapies, particularly fasting and ketogenic diets, in creating alternative metabolic states that may lead to improvements in symptoms, function, and quality of life for people with neurological disorders.

Dr Neera Bhatia is an Associate Professor. She holds an LLB (Hons), Master of Laws (from the UK) and a Doctorate in Law from Deakin University.

Neera is the author of ‘Critically impaired infants and end of life decision making: Resource allocation and difficult decisions’, published by Routledge Cavendish (UK). Her research interests are in end-of-life decision-making for critically ill infants and children, organ donation, voluntary assisted dying, definition and determination of death, emerging health and reproductive technologies – and more broadly contemporary issues in health law. She has published in national and international journals on a wide range of health law issues. Neera actively engages with the wider community as an expert commentator in the media on topical issues in health law.

She teaches Health Law in the undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She is currently the Deputy Chair of the University Human Research Ethics Committee. She has previously sat on several clinical ethics committees.

Julian Koplin is lecturer in bioethics at the Monash Bioethics Centre. His research interests include human tissue ethics and the ethical implications of new technologies.

Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly FRS, is Co-Director of the Institute of Metabolic Science and Director of the Medical Research Council Metabolic Diseases Unit at the University of Cambridge which is part of the broader University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories which he also directs. On the wider Cambridge Biomedical Campus, he is Scientific Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Head of the University Department of Clinical Biochemistry.

He was elected FRS in 2003, to the National Academy of Sciences, USA in 2011, has received five honorary doctorates and numerous scientific awards including the 2002 Heinrich Weiland Prize, the 2005 Luft Prize, the 2007 Feldberg Prize, the 2010 InBev-Baillet Latour Prize for Health, the 2014 Debrecen Prize, the 2014 International Prize for Translational Neuroscience of the Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation, the 2015 Edward K Dunham Lectureship, Harvard Medical School and in 2015 was the first recipient of the EASD/Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize for Excellence. More recently he was the 2016 Harveian Orator RCP of London, in 2019 received the Taubman Prize for Excellence in Medical Science, University of Michigan, USA, the Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, American Diabetes Association and the Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research, Japan. In 2020 the Rank Prize for Nutrition and in 2022 the Royal Society Croonian Medal (jointly with Professor Sadaf Farooqi). In 2013 he was made Knight Bachelor “for services to medical research”.

His main research area is the aetiology and pathophysiology of human metabolic and endocrine disease and how such information might be used to improve the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of these diseases.

Sam is trainee diabetes and endocrinology doctor and a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD student at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge. His work uses human genetics and model systems to discover novel causes and risk factors for human disease. He completed his undergraduate medical training at Queen’s University Belfast followed by a visting studentship in Joslin Diabetes Centre, Harvard Medical School before returning to the UK to begin his clinical academic training in Belfast as an Academic Foundation Doctor and then in Cambridge as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Diabetes and Endocrinology.

I am a Professor of Physiology at Texas A&M University. My independent research program focuses on the interface between pregnancy and epigenetics, trying to understand how environmental exposures before conception or early in development cause disease later in life. Through this research, my lab seeks to define the biochemical mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance through sperm, determine how exposure to alcohol influences these processes, and identify the capacity of these heritable changes to contribute to the development of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs).
My long-term goals are to change the narrative on the origins of alcohol-induced birth defects, define epigenetic mechanisms of paternal inheritance, and provide an entertaining yet impactful learning experience to future professionals in the biomedical sciences.
My research is supported by the NIH (R01AA028219) and a Medical Research Grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation and focuses on defining the epigenetic mechanisms by which paternal drinking influences the development of alcohol-induced congenital disabilities.

Hilary Diefenbach, MA, CCC-SLP, CBIST is a licensed Speech Language Pathologist at the Marcus Institute for Brain Health (MIBH) and Instructor in the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine. Hilary specializes in brain injury rehabilitation for adults. Hilary began her Speech Pathology career in inpatient rehabilitation serving at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation for patients recovering from stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other complex medical problems. Hilary joined the MIBH in 2018, where she leads the Speech Pathology Department as part of an interdisciplinary team specializing in intensive outpatient rehabilitation for U.S. Military Veterans and Emergency Responders with a history of mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury, psychological health changes, and related health sequelae. Hilary is passionate about medical education, precision and preventative medicine, and interdisciplinary care design within her clinical and academic work at the University of Colorado. In her free time, Hilary enjoys time outdoors in the Rocky Mountains, music performance, and FaceTiming her nieces and nephews back home in Washington DC.

Professor Sonia Grover is a general gynaecologist and pain medicine specialist who is also a leader in paediatric and adolescent gynaecology in Australia and internationally. Her experience and research at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne has given her insight into understanding adolescent period related problems which also impact on how we understand adult womens’ period and pelvic pain and endometriosis. Prof Grover research focus is always very clinical, aiming to improve the care and outcome for women of all ages. Prof Grover has always enjoyed teaching and sharing her knowledge, so that others can also provide optimal and evidence-based care.