Name: Tamsyn Van Rheenen
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
ResilNet role: Principal Investigator
Associate Professor Tamsyn Van Rheenen is a Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, where she leads the Mood-Psychosis Spectrum Research Group. Her research program aims to characterise cognitive impairments in severe psychiatric disorders and understand the mechanisms behind them. A/Prof Van Rheenen has published over 100 papers and received a number of prestigious international, national and local awards in recognition of her research excellence. These awards include a Gerald Klerman Young Investigator Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, a Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and a Paul Bourke Medal from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Research interests: Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, social and general cognition, neurobiology
Email: tamsyn.van@unimelb.edu.au
Name: Elysha Ringin
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
ResilNet role: Researcher
Dr. Elysha Ringin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Mood Psychosis Spectrum Research Group at the University of Melbourne. She recently completed her PhD in Psychiatry, where her research investigated the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive function in bipolar disorder. Her current work builds on this foundation, further exploring the link between cardiovascular health and bipolar disorder, while also investigating other clinical, biological, and psychosocial factors that influence both cognition and mood in those with bipolar. She has authored several research publications in this area and currently sits as a member of the International Society for Bipolar Disorder’s Vascular Task Force.
Research interests: Bipolar disorder, cognition, vascular health
Email: elysha.ringin@unimelb.edu.au
Name: Susan Rossell
Affiliation: Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology and InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney and Sydney Local Health District
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Professor Susan Rossell is currently Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology and Director of Clinical Trials at Swinburne University; Professor of Eating Disorders, InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney; and Honorary Professorial Fellow Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. She is also Co-Chair of MAGNET – the Australian mental health clinical trial network. Her research has focused on improving our understanding of psychosis and cognitive deficits experienced in severe mental health disorders, and how to remediate such deficits using novel treatment avenues. She has >490 publications and has been the recipient of major project grants and fellowships nationally/internationally.
Research interests: Schizophrenia, Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Eating Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, social and general cognition, clinical trials, neurobiology.
Name: Kelly Allott
Affiliation: Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health and Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Professor Kelly Allott is a clinical neuropsychologist and Professorial Fellow at Orygen and Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne. She leads the Cognition research program at Orygen, focused on understanding and supporting cognitive functioning and functional recovery among youth with mental illness. She has a special interest in strength, strategy, and lifestyle based approaches to supporting cognitive functioning and optimising implementation in real world clinical settings.
Research interests: neuropsychology, youth mental health, cognitive functioning, interventions, functional recovery.
Email: kelly.allott@orygen.org.au
Name: Denny Meyer
Affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology
ResilNet role: Biostatistician
Professor Denny Meyer isan adjunct professor at Swinburne University of Technology. She is an applied statistician with more than 250 publications who focuses on methodological issues relating to research design, measurement and analysis methods, predominantly in mental health. She has been involved with multiple clinical trials and is an expert in multi-level modelling, structural equation modelling and survival analysis, using these methods to explain response mechanisms. In addition, she has her own research agenda focused largely on the risk of suicide. In this capacity she recently lead an evaluation of one of the Victorian Child and Youth Hope programs.
Research interests: suicide prevention, mental health, research design
Email: dmeyer@swin.edu.au
Name: Michael Berk
Affiliation: Institute for Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), School of Medicine, Deakin University
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Michael Berk is currently a NHMRC Leadership 3 research Fellow and is Deakin Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Deakin University and Barwon Health, where he heads the Institute for Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT). He also is an Honorary Professorial Research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health and Orygen Youth Health at Melbourne University, as well as in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. He has published over 1650 papers and is listed by Thompson Reuters ISI as highly cited (2015-2025).
Research interests: bipolar disorder, novel therapies discovery
Email: michael.berk@deakin.edu.au
Name: Stephen Wood
Affiliation: Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Stephen is an internationally recognised leader in clinical translational neuroscience. He has held positions as Professor of Clinical Translational Neuroscience and Head of Clinical Neuroscience at Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, and Professor of Adolescent Development and Mental Health at the University of Birmingham (UK). A top 0.1% researcher in schizophrenia/psychosis (Expertscape), and a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2024), Stephen’s work has shaped global understanding of psychosis risk, especially during adolescence. His research has pioneered neuroimaging and cognitive approaches to predict illness onset and has resulted in the development of major international consortia to improve outcomes for young people. He is committed to research translation and community engagement, with active involvement in lived experience networks, and frequent invited talks in public science forums.
Research interests: psychosis, neuroimaging, cognition
Email: sjwood@unimelb.edu.au
Name: Andrew Zalesky
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Professor Andrew Zalesky is a researcher at the University of Melbourne, supported by the ARC Future Fellowship and Rebecca L. Cooper Foundation. He is jointly appointed across the Faculties of Engineering and Medicine. Dr Zalesky co-leads the Systems Lab (www.sysneuro.org). He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and is ranked in the top 1% of researchers globally based on citations (Highly Cited Researcher 2018-2025, Clarivate Analytics). He is Editor-in-Chief of Neuroimage Clinical and serves as Senior Editor for Network Neuroscience and Brain Topography. He currently serves as Chair of OHBM Australia, the leading organisation representing neuroimaging researchers in Australia. Dr Zalesky is recognised for the novel tools that he has developed to analyse brain networks and their application to the study of neuropsychiatric disorders. He developed the network-based statistic, a tool that has been used in hundreds of published studies to map brain network dysfunction. He led development of the Melbourne Subcortex Atlas with Y. Tian; established the OptiTMS algorithm with R. Cash, which is now in clinical use for brain stimulation target optimisation; and co-authored the textbook Fundamentals of Brain Network Analysis with A. Fornito and E. Bullmore.
Research interests: systems neuroscience
Email: azalesky@unimelb.edu.au
Name: Christos Pantelis
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator
Christos Pantelis is Foundation Professor of Neuropsychiatry and NHMRC L3 Investigator at The University of Melbourne, Adjunct Professor at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), and Honorary Professor at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. He is Consultant at the Rehabilitation Unit, Sunshine Hospital, managing patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. He is a recognised expert in schizophrenia/psychoses, has collaborated with various groups internationally, and has published >750 scientific papers and 3 books, and has been a highly cited scientist (2014-2023). He was first to describe dynamic brain changes at psychosis onset. His work explores the neurobiological basis of brain changes in psychosis/schizophrenia, (incl. early risk factors, genetics, neuro-inflammation, and metals/oxidative stress). His work on brain development has led to studies of children with schizotypal disorder. Recent studies of a neurodevelopmental mouse model aim to identify novel treatments.
Research interests: psychosis, neurodevelopment
Email: cpant@unimelb.edu.au
Name: Vanessa Cropley
Affiliation: Orygen Youth Mental Health
ResilNet role: Co-Investigator