Gianluca Di Censo

Gianluca Di Censo is a Research Fellow in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University and a member of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA). His research focuses on substance use, behavioural addiction, and population-level harm reduction, with particular interest in how social, developmental, occupational, and marketing environments shape risky behaviour.

Di Censo completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Adelaide in 2024 under the supervision of Professors Paul Delfabbro and Daniel King. His doctoral research examined the impact of sports betting marketing on young people, including how advertising, inducements, and digital betting environments influence gambling attitudes, engagement, and harm. This work established him as an emerging researcher in gambling studies, especially in relation to youth vulnerability, sports betting advertising, and the regulation of gambling promotion. His academic achievements include a Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence and the Frank Dalziel Prize for the best doctoral thesis in the School of Psychology.

Under the supervision of Professor Jacqueline Bowden, Di Censo’s NCETA research has expanded across the alcohol and other drugs sector. His current interests include the epidemiological and developmental determinants of substance use, especially cannabis and methamphetamine, as well as alcohol consumption, youth consumption, workplace health, and population-level harm reduction. His publications at Flinders encompass occupational determinants of high-risk substance use, generational cohort differences in alcohol consumption, and youth interventions to reduce high-risk alcohol consumption. He is currently involved in a criminology and public health project that is investigating the regional supply and demand of methamphetamine, which is being led by Associate Professor Caitlin Hughes.