Professor Eva Kemps

Professor

College of Education, Psychology and Social Work

+61 8 82012416
place Social Sciences North (355)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Eva Kemps undertook her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. She subsequently relocated to Adelaide to take up an academic position at Flinders University, where she is now Professor of Psychology. Eva has an international research reputation in the area of eating behaviour. Over the past 20 years she has carved out an innovative and sophisticated program of research, applying mainstream experimental cognitive psychology to the food and eating domain. To date, she has obtained approximately $40 million in research funding from national competitive research grants, mostly the Australian Research Council, the flagship funding body in Australia for non-medical research. She has authored over 150 publications and has a strong profile in the media, where her work is regularly featured both in the Australian and international press. During 2010-12 she served on the advisory panel of the Australian Women’s Health magazine as their expert weight loss advisor. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, and sits on the Editorial Boards of Appetite; Behaviour Research and Therapy; the International Journal of Clinical Health Psychology; Frontiers in Nutrition, Psychiatry and Psychology: Eating Behavior; and the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. In addition to her academic appointment in Psychology, she held a significant research administrative leadership position as Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (2012-2017), and was the Convenor of the Associate Deans (Research) Network of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (2016-2017). She is the co-Convenor of the Australasian Forum on Emerging Research in Cognition and Emotion, which she co-founded in 2015. She is also the Flinders Node Leader of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Plants for Space and is a member of the Flinders University Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Qualifications

B.Psych. & Ed., M.Psych., Ph.D. (Ghent, Belgium)

Honours, awards and grants

Grants

Catcheside, P., Scott, H., ... Kemps, E., & Eckert, D. Personalised daily body-clock tracking and circadian light therapy retiming to improve sleep, performance, health and safety. 2024-2026, $1,335,760.35, NHMRC Ideas Grant.

Gilliham, M., de Zwart, M., Gras, S., ... Kemps, E., ... Curach, N. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. 2023-2030, $35,000,000.

Catcheside, P., Lack, L., Kemps, E., Vakulin, A., Eckert, D., Lovato, N., Micic, G., & Adams, R. Exploring human cognitive effectiveness in an encapsulated work environment: Toward a circadian entrainment strategy using smart LED lighting. 2020-2023, $562,945, Research Network for Undersea Decision Superiority, Defence Science & Technology Group.

Kemps, E., & Tiggemann, M. “Things don’t always go better with Coke”: The role of automatic processing in the (over)consumption of soft drinks. 2018-2021, $420,077, ARC Discovery Project.

Kemps, E., & Tiggemann, M. Can attentional re-training reduce food cravings and consumption? 2013-2015, $229,753, ARC Discovery Project.

Kemps, E., & Tiggemann, M. Implicit cognitive processing of environmental food and eating cues in obese adults. 2009-2011, $215,000, ARC Discovery Project.

Kemps, E., & Tiggemann, M. “Images of desire”: An experimental cognitive approach to understanding and reducing food cravings. 2006-2008, $180,000, ARC Discovery Project.

Awards

2023  Dean’s Recognition of Teaching Award, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University

2021  Student Led Teaching Awards – joint winner in category of Most Supportive Supervisor, Flinders University

2010  Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Early Career Researchers, Flinders University

2005  Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Flinders University

Topic coordinator
PSYC3003 Introduction to clinical psychology
PSYC3008 Applied Cognitive Psychology
Supervisory interests
Cognitive biases
Eating behaviour
Food craving
Implicit cognitive processing
Obesity
Higher degree by research supervision
Current
Principal supervisor: Soft drink consumption (2), Nudging (4), Sleep and cognition (2), Emotional regulation and eating (1), Body image (2)
Associate supervisor: Binge eating (1), Sugar consumption (1), Body image (3), Physical activity (2)
Completion
Principal supervisor: Nutrition and cognition (1), Eating behaviour (2), Cognitive bias and emotion (1), Food cravings (1), Physical activity (2), Prevention of worry (1), Social anxiety and perfectionism (1), Cognitive ageing (1)
Associate supervisor: Physical activity (1), Emotional eating (1)
Higher degree by research student achievements
Naomi Kakoschke

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence (2018) -

Expert for media contact
Food
Health psychology
Nutrition
Psychology
Craving
Eating behaviour
Available for contact via
+61 8 82012416
Or contact the media team
+61 8 82012092
0427 398 713
Media expertise
  • Food
  • Health psychology
  • Nutrition
  • Psychology
Interests
  • Craving
  • Eating behaviour
Further information
For further information click here.