2007-2010: Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)

I completed my undergraduate degree in my hometown, at the University of Wollongong. The beauty and location of this campus cannot be overstated - if you ever get the change to visit, please do!

My final year empirical research project gave me my first taste of cognitive neuroscience research. My thesis focused on improving the within-session reliability of the auditory event-related potential known as Mismatch Negativity (MMN). 

This was a great project to whet my appetite - as it combined both psychometric and EEG analysis of a healthy population, with the gracious supervision of Professor Rodney Croft. For my research I was awarded First Class Honours, and invited to present at the annual Australasian Cognitive Neurosciences Conference (ACNS) in Melbourne later that year.

2011 - 2013: Research Assistant(s). 

University of New South Wales

After graduation I accepted a role to expand my experience as a research assistant, working in the Clinical Neuropsychology unit of the University of New South Wales under the supervision of Professor Skye McDonald. There I gained clinical experience with a diverse population of traumatic-brain-injury sufferers, combining neuropsychological with psychometric assessments of cognitive function. This was a wonderful experience, and taught me a lot about the diverse needs of clinical research, and necessity to manage expectations when working with sufferers of TBI.

Université de Montréal

Then, after an approximately 12 month research-interruption undertaken to enjoy traveling and volunteer work in Latin America, I moved my career to the Université de Montréal, Canada. I worked as a Laboratory Coordinator in the Social Change and Identity Laboratory of Professor Roxane de la Sablonnière. This was another fantastic, and challenging role (not least because I began without speaking a lick of Québécois). I helped to revise undergraduate research topics and theses for eventual publication, and coordinate the publication of a research journal based on exclusively undergraduate research.

After sampling these different research environments, I decided to move away from clinical/social research in order to return to my passion for cognitive neuroscience. Fortunately,  I now had a clearer idea of an experimental topic to focus on for my PhD - the neural correlates of consciousness.

2014: 

Before returning and settling into research, however, I first ticked-off some other bucket list items.

I spent two winter seasons snowboarding in Revelstoke, British Columbia, while working as a dishwasher and burrito maker in a late-night food van. 

Between seasons I also made my way to and from Burning man, and spent a summer planting trees in the northern wilderness of British Columbia.

It wasn't all bad though - during this time I also met my wife, and convinced her to move to Melbourne, Australia with me before beginning my PhD.

2015-2019 : PhD , Monash University

At Monash, I began research toward a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Neuroscience of Consciousness laboratory, under the supervision of Associate Professors Naotsugu Tsuchiya and Jeroen van Boxtel.

My research focused on improving paradigms to study attention and consciousness. Specifically, I leveraged the methodological advantages of a technique known as a frequency-tagging, in which sensory stimuli are rapidly modulated at a unique frequency to entrain brain responses in a narrow frequency-band for investigation in the EEG. Using this technique, my thesis demonstrates how consciousness emerges from the interplay between attention, sensory stimulation and unconscious processes, with a focus on the influence of auditory and tactile stimulation on visual perception.

You can access my doctoral thesis, Spatial and temporal analysis of qualia as evidence of conscious perception, here.

Plain language summaries of some of my PhD publications can be accessed via The Brain Dialogue, and Monash University.

2019 - 2021: Postdoctoral research associate

After my PhD, I was based in the beautiful city of Oxford, in the UK. 

My work built upon my previous efforts to separate the neural correlates of attention from consciousness. Working with Professor Nick Yeung, we untangled the neural correlates of attention, from decision confidence and visibility. 

This work is ongoing, and part of a larger effort, to improve the efficacy of human-machine teaming, via the application of this research into brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. 

2021 - Current: Lecturer, Postdoctoral associate.

In 2021 I joined the University of Sydney, working alongside Professor David Alais.

We're investigating how dynamic and active behaviour influence perception. 

To do this, use a host of methods, including wireless immersive virtual reality (VR), mobile-EEG, and continuous psychophysics.