Research leaders

Professor Jo Robinson AM
Head of Suicide Research
Scientific Director, The Orygen Institute

Professor Jo Robinson is the world’s leading expert in youth suicide prevention, the author of more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, and creator of #chatsafe, the world’s first social media-based suicide prevention program.

President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, her work focuses on the development and testing of novel interventions that specifically target at-risk youth across settings, and the translation of that research evidence into practice and policy. In 2023, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of “significant service to community health through suicide prevention awareness and support”.

Prof. Robinson’s work has a strong focus on the potential of social media platforms in suicide prevention, which includes the development of the world-leading #chatsafe guidelines, the first evidence-based best practice guidelines for safe peer-to-peer communication about suicide and self-harm online. The resources have been adapted and translated for dozens of countries, and reached 14 million young people globally.

Prof. Robinson also has a keen interest in policy development and evaluation, has led the development of two major policy reports, and is regularly called upon to provide advice to both state and federal government.

She was a member of the Self-injury Advisory Group for Meta and was an advisory board member for the Oprah Winfrey production The Me You Can’t See.

In 2025, Prof. Robinson co-chaired the Australian Government’s Anti-Bullying Rapid Review and was previously an Associate Editor of a leading suicide prevention journal, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour.

Read more about Jo's work in her Find an Expert profile on the University of Melbourne's website.

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