Research leaders

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.

Her team’s research uses longitudinal research designs and neuroimaging tools to investigate how environmental (e.g., family environments) and biological (e.g., puberty) factors interact to shape brain development, and in turn, risk and resilience for mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Her team also studies how parenting interventions positively impact brain development in young people at risk of mental health problems.

Sarah was a founding member and President of the Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience (AS4SAN), a non-profit organisation that aims to promote basic and applied social and affective neuroscience research in the Australasian region. She was also co-Director of the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre prior to joining Orygen.