Senior Research Fellow
College of Medicine and Public Health
My research aims to understand respiratory physiology, respiratory motor impairment and breathlessness (aka dyspnoea), in health, healthy ageing and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I use a multi-faceted approach to investigate the neural control of breathing such as electromyography to assess respiratory muscle activity, electroencephalography to assess brain activity and respiratory sensation and ultrasound for respiratory muscle mechanics.
I am most well known for single motor unit recordings from human respiratory muscles that implicate the spinal cord as the site of integration of multiple descending neural drives to the motoneurones during respiratory and non-respiratory contractions. I established the ‘principle of motor unit recruitment by neuromechanical matching’, which is applicable to all movements we make and is relevant to the broader field of motor control.
2010 PhD, Respiratory Physiology, University of New South Wales
2006 BSc (Hons 1st class), Respiratory Physiology, University of New South Wales
2003 BSc (Biomed Sci), University of Adelaide
Highlights:
2023 Flinders University 'Near Miss Funding' for NHMRC Ideas Grant
2022 Flinders Foudation Health Seed Grant
2018 NHMRC Project Grant
2018 Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation Project Grant
2018 Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Janet Elder International Travel Award
2017 Lung Foundation Australia/Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Research Fellowship
2015 Australian Academy of Science FASIC Early Career Fellowship
2014 University of New South Wales Dean’s Rising Star Award
2012 University of New South Wales Mark Rowe Prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in neurophysiology
2011 NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (Overseas Biomedical Fellowship)
2010 University of New South Wales Best PhD Prize in the School of Medical Sciences
2006 University of New South Wales University Medal in Physiology
I conduct laboratory-based research in healthy and clinical populations with local, national and international collaborators. I supervise Honours, Masters and PhD students.