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Professor Greg Murray

Director, Centre for Mental Health
Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne, Australia; Master of Psychology (Cinical Psychology), La Trobe University, Australia

Biography

Professor Greg Murray conducts research into mood disorders, circadian rhythms, and personality. He is ranked in the top 1% of researchers worldwide in each of these fields, and is recognised as a world expert in bipolar disorder (top 0.1%, Expertscape.com). After a first career in music, he took out his PhD from University of Melbourne in 2001, and was promoted to full Professor at Swinburne in 2011.

Professor Murray's 220+ journal articles receive more than 1000 citations each year (SCOPUS), and he has been Chief Investigator on > $31 million in national competitive funding and > $2.5 million in industry funding. Professor Murray has won individual awards for research, teaching, and impact, completed 27 PhD students, and provided professional development workshops for hundreds of psychologists and psychiatrists. He is a practicing clinical psychologist, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) in 2013. 

Professor Murray’s work has had significant community impact. He was the sole non-US contributor to the bipolar disorders chapter of DSM-5-TR (American Psychiatric Association). He is final author on the influential Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Mood Disorder Guidelines (2020) and wrote the APS guidelines for treating bipolar disorder. His public engagement includes a regular mental health segment on ABC Radio and frequent school talks on sleep health. His articles for The Conversation have generated 1.2 million reads.  

Professor Murray has played numerous leadership roles, including Director of the University of Melbourne Psychology Clinic, Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Swinburne, Chair of Hawthorn headspace, Director of Swinburne's Centre for Mental Health, and Chair of Orygen Research Review Committee. He is currently Director of the Swinburne Bipolar Research Clinic, Patron of Bipolar Life and Oceania representative on the board of International Society for Bipolar Disorders.


Research interests

Clinical Psychology; Mood Disorders; Neuroscience; Biomedical science

PhD candidate and honours supervision

Higher degrees by research

Accredited to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal Supervisor.

PhD topics and outlines

Creativity and bipolar disorder: Working with colleagues at UC Berkeley, we have completed a number of studies of the links between creativity and bipolar disorder.   We would now like to take this research further by investigating the basic mechanisms that might underpin the link.  Such research has the potential to illuminate fundamental relationships between affect and cognition. 

Embodied and embedded cognition: As psychology gets over the "cognitive revolution", greater attention is being paid to the role of the body and its environment in the basic processes of online and offline thinking.    We would like to better understand this area using rigorous experimental protocols. 

Exploring quality of life in bipolar disorder: Quality of life is an important complementary target for psychological and biological treatments of bipolar disorder.   We are interested in the optimal measurement of this construct,  and the development of interventions that directly target quality of life outcomes. 

Sleep and mood: investigating the circular relationship : Poor sleep challenges emotion regulation the following day, and daytime distress impairs sleep at night.   This interplay looks a lot like depression, and we are interested in basic and applied investigations to understand and ameliorate this 'vicious cycle'.

Social networks in the delivery of mental health services: The mental health system in Australia is a labyrinth of federal, state, local and private services.  To maximise the health benefit of these multiple layers of service, and to minimise the cost to the public purse, we need to better understand how these services interact.   Social network theory and modelling approaches provide a way forward.

Honours

Available to supervise honours students.

Fields of Research

  • Counselling Psychology - 520303
  • Health Psychology - 520304
  • Clinical Psychology - 520302
  • Psychophysiology - 520206
  • Social And Affective Neuroscience - 520207
  • Clinical Neuropsychology - 520301
  • Cognition - 520401
  • Learning, Motivation And Emotion - 520403
  • Behavioural Genetics - 520201
  • Behavioural Neuroscience - 520202
  • Cognitive Neuroscience - 520203
  • Psychopharmacology - 520205

Awards

  • 2017, Swinburne, Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award, Swinburne University
  • 2016, Swinburne, Outstanding Researcher, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology
  • 2014, Swinburne, Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Health Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology
  • 2014, Swinburne, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design Research Excellence Award , Swinburne University of Technology
  • 2012, National, Australian Academy of Science, High Fliers Think Tank, Australian Academy of Science
  • 2005, Swinburne, Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award (Early Career), Swinburne University of Technology
  • 2004, Swinburne, Vice Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award, Higher Education Teacher of the Year, Swinburne University of Technology
  • 1999, International, U.S. National Science Foundation Student Award, International Congress on Chronobiology, Washington, D. C.
  • 1994, National, Australian postgraduate scholarship, The University of Melbourne
  • 1988, National, Commonwealth Postgraduate Course Award, La Trobe University
  • 1980, National, Australian Psychological Society undergraduate student prize, The University of Melbourne
  • 1978, National, First year student prize, Philosophy 1, The University of Melbourne

Publications

Also published as: Murray, Greg; Murray, G.; Murray, Gregory; Murray, Greg W.; Murray, Gregory W.
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.

Recent research grants awarded

  • 2022: Bipolar Early intervention using New Digital technologies: a hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of a multi-component model of evidence-based care *; NHMRC Partnership Project
  • 2022: Establishing the dynamic interaction between sleep and schizophrenia *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2022: RFQ: Towards Mentally Healthy Hybrid Workplaces *; National Mental Health Commission
  • 2022: Statistical Support for PolarUs Data Analysis *; University of British Columbia
  • 2022: Web-based psychological intervention as the first-line component of a novel stepped-care intervention for young people at risk of bipolar disorder *; The University of New South Wales
  • 2020: A mixed-methods investigation of the retrospective reporting of sleep quality in schizophrenia spectrum disorder. *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2020: Organisational trials Readiness: Examining psychometric properties and measurement intervals *; Readiness Pty Ltd Fund Scheme
  • 2019: Developing a more supportive emergency department for mental health presentations *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2019: Integrating mental wellness and brain wellness assessment/advice on SiSU stations *; Digital Health CRC
  • 2018: Preventing Relapse of Major Depressive Disorder in Youth: RCT of a Novel Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Online Social Therapy *; NHMRC Project Grants
  • 2017: 2017 Visiting Fellowship Scheme - Professor Jan Scott *; Swinburne Research, DVCR&D - Internal contributions
  • 2017: Investigating therapeutic mechanisms of a new treatment for bipolar disorder *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2017: Randomised controlled trial of the RECOVER tailored psychological intervention for first episode bipolar disorder *; NHMRC Project Grants
  • 2017: The Tipping Point project: Activity monitoring as an early warning technology in bipolar disorder *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant
  • 2015: Achieving sustainable collaboration in the mental health sector  *; Relationships Australia (Victoria)
  • 2013: A double-blind placebo-controlled trial of Lactium and Zizyphus complex for sleep *; Sanofi Aventis
  • 2013: Monitoring anxiety & depression in the Australian population over time: The development of an annual national Anxiety & Depression Monitor *; Barbara Dicker Brain Science grant

* Chief Investigator


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