Research leaders

Professor Lucia Valmaggia

Professor Valmaggia studied for an MSc in clinical psychology at the University of Groningen, became a Health Psychologist and a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist in the Netherlands and obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Manchester.

From 2003-2023 she worked at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London (IoPPN) where she combined her academic work with her clinical work as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. She set up the first early detection service in the UK (OASIS) and the first early detection and early intervention service in a prison setting (LEAP).

She has published extensively, and she was named Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers in 2019, 2020 and 2021, 2022 and 2023. She is ranked as the number three expert in virtual reality in the world (top 0.0083% out of 36,150 ranked scientists up to January 2024).

Professor Valmaggia is a Visiting Professor at KU Leuven and at the IoPPN and has been the President of the IEPA-Early Intervention in Mental Health Association. In 2021 she was awarded the British Psychological Society Presidents’ Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge and in 2023 she was elected Fellow of the British Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Professor Valmaggia set up and led the IoPPN Virtual Reality Research Lab (VR Lab) and moved to Melbourne to co-lead the Orygen Digital XR Innovation Lab (XR-Lab), an interdisciplinary group of clinical academics, clinicians, neuroscientists, post-doctoral researchers working alongside VR developers and industry partners to conduct studies in the use of immersive reality for mental health.  Her clinical work is with young people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system.

Read more about Professor Valmaggia's work here.