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Charles Spence

Neurogastronomy and sensation

Professor of Experimental Psychology; Fellow of Somerville College Charles BA MA PHD


Professor Charles Spence is very interested in how our brains manage to process the information from each of our different senses (such as smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch) to form our rich daily multisensory experiences. This sounds like a lot of fun and it has led him to the Professorship of Experimental Psychology at Oxford, England.

His research has implications in many areas – the design of interfaces, improving the flavour of the food we eat, making cars safer, making things hurt less… or more. Neurogastronomy is an interest and he is currently working with Heston Blumenthal, chef of The Fat Duck restaurant. Charles is just starting out – with only 300 articles in top-flight scientific journals in 15 years. If he is eligible for an award, he wins it, for example the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, and the 2008 IG Nobel prize for nutrition, for his groundbreaking work on the 'sonic potato crisp.'


Cross Modal Research Laboratory
Publications



Steve Williams

Functional MRI and the clinic

Professor and Head of the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, UK


Despite the fact that Mr and Mrs Williams resorted to such an unremarkable and monocultural name as 'Steve', they clearly gave their son the multicultural trifecta - Professor Steve Williams is Cambridge-clever, Paris-charming and Barcelona-good looking. The envy of his peers from high school onwards, he quickly became one of the young upstarts of the medical science world. Although he still looks about 12, he has 350 papers, various awards and prizes, millions of pounds of funding and is the Director of the King's College Centre for Neuroimaging Science, which is part of the Institute of Psychiatry - the most prolific neuroscience research facility in Europe. He is head of a research team that investigates a range of problems - neurodegeneration, epilepsy, stroke, pain and psychosis. He is Welsh but speaks English very well and can often be heard trying to convince people he is not really as impressive as his CV would suggest. He didn't fool us.


Publications




Lorimer Moseley

The cortical body matrix

Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Chair in Physiotherapy at The University of South Australia


Professor Lorimer Moseley: Former truckie, barista, two wheel demon, Nuffield Research Fellow at Oxford and now Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at UniSA, Lorimer has a particular interest in brain contributions to chronic pain and researching and implementing novel therapies for all sorts of pain problems. Co-author of Explain Pain, author of Painful Yarns, and over 80 articles, he won the 2007 IASP Ulf Lindblom Award, given to the top clinical scientist under 40 working in a pain related field. Here is a rare world-class scientist and thinker, insistent in the clinical relevance of his work. We have the feeling that this is just the beginning of his journey.


Publications


Fiona Wood

'Thinking' yourself whole

Clinical Professor at the University of Western Australia School of Paediatrics and Child Health


There are some pretty fabulous Australians, but they do not come more fabulous than Professor Fiona Wood. Fiona is an official Australian Living Treasure and a source of inspiration to many Australians. She is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Director of the West Australian Burns Service, Clinical Professor at the University of Western Australia and a mother of six. Her leadership, innovation and vision saw her thrust into the spotlight as she treated survivors of the Bali bombing with her ground breaking research on tissue-guided regeneration, and her lesser known promotion of holistic multidisciplinary burn care. Fiona is a tireless promoter of 'the patient comes first' and believer in the untapped potential of human regeneration and the power of trust.


UWA - teaching link
Publications



Sandy McFarlane

Post traumatic stress disorder

Professor and Head of the University of Adelaide's Node of the Centre of Military and Veterans Health


Professor Sandy McFarlane - Senior Adviser in Psychiatry to the Australian Defence Force and a Professor at the University of Adelaide is an internationally recognised big-wig in the field of the impact of disasters and post traumatic stress disorder. Sandy has published over 250 articles and received many awards such as the Founders Medal, the Robert Laufer Award, and more recently an Order of Australia for outstanding scientific achievement in the field of PTSD having made a major contribution to understanding risk factors for PTSD. Sandy is one of the finest products of South Australia and has an extraordinary collection of model boats as well.


ABC interview
Publications



Mick Thacker

Pain and the immune system

Programme Director: Pain, Science and Society, Kings College, London, UK


Dr Mick Thacker has a long standing interest in neuro-immune interactions in the generation and maintenance of pain and he is really, really smart. He has a rounded schooling beginning his PhD with Patrick Wall and finishing with Steve McMahon. Mick heads up the Pain, Science and Society Programme at Kings College London where he has established a world-leading interdisciplinary masters level course. His current research interests are concentrated on both clinical and pre-clinical functional imaging and pain, in particular neuropathic constructs within musculoskeletal pain states. But there is another side to this genuine nice guy – he is a dragonfly expert, ex-English rugby player, potential anarchist and passionate advocate for people in pain.