Our Leaders

Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez is Chief of Orygen Digital and Professor in Digital Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. Mario has internationally pioneered the integration of digital technology, artificial intelligence and human support to enhance the accessibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of youth mental health services.

Professor Andrew Chanen is Chief of Clinical Practice. Andrew’s research, clinical and training interests lie in prevention and early intervention for severe mental disorders, principally personality disorders, along with mood and psychotic disorders.

Professor Eóin Killackey is Chief of Research and Knowledge Translation and and Head of the functional recovery research program at Orygen. He has worked as a clinical psychologist in adolescent and adult public mental health settings and in private practice.

Professor Jo Robinson leads Orygen’s suite of research programs around suicide prevention. Her work focuses on improving our knowledge about the best approaches to reduce suicide risk among young people. This includes developing programs, testing novel approaches that specifically target at-risk youth, and translating the research evidence into practice and policy.

Professor Rosemary Purcell is Deputy Chief of Knowledge Translation at Orygen. She is also the Deputy Head of Department of the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and a registered psychologist.

Barnaby Nelson is a clinical psychologist and researcher. He leads the Ultra-high Risk for Psychosis Research program and works clinically at one Orygen's headspace centres. His work focuses on identification strategies, prediction of outcome and treatments for young people who are at ultra-high risk for psychosis.

Professor Eric Chen is a Professorial Fellow who works in First Episode Psychosis Research at Orygen. He studies processes leading to the onset and outcomes in psychotic disorders and youth mental health.

Paul Amminger is a Professorial Research Fellow at Orygen and also Professor of Youth Mental Health at the Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne. His research spans traditional high-risk research in schizophrenia to cutting-edge intervention studies in the onset phase of psychosis and affective disorders.

Professor Sarah Whittle is a Professorial Research Fellow who leads Neurodevelopmental Research at Orygen that aims to better understand links between child and adolescent neurodevelopment and mental health.