Rate My Professor Carmel Loughland

Conjoint Professor Carmel Loughland serves in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle's College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She obtained her PhD in Science from the University of Sydney in 2002 and a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) Honours from the same university. Currently, she holds the position of Lead for Translational Mental Health Research with the Hunter New England Mental Health Service, Director of the Visuo-cognition Laboratory, and senior member of the Priority Research Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research in the Faculty of Health and Medicine. As a senior registered psychologist with clinical experience in public and private practice, she is authorised by the Psychology Board of Australia to supervise probationary psychologists and serves as a registered Justice of the Peace in NSW. Key appointments include Clinical Lead (Research) for the NSW Ministry of Health's Pathways to Community Living Initiative (2015-2017) and membership on the NHMRC Parenting and Child Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee (2014-2017). Loughland established the Visuo-Cognitive Laboratory in 2002 at the Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research, the Schizophrenia Research Institute’s Register in 1997, the HMRI Volunteer Research Register in 2005, the Hunter DNA Biobank for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders in 2003, and managed the Australian Schizophrenia Research Biobank from 2006 to 2015. She was appointed Associate Professor in 2012 and Professor in 2020.

Her research specializations include mental health research on severe psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, social cognition disturbances particularly face and emotion (visuo-cognitive) processing deficits in schizophrenia and affective disorders, visuo-cognitive disturbances in mother-infant relationships among women with borderline personality disorder and postnatal depression, rehabilitation for individuals with mental ill-health, and the ComPsych program for communication skills training in psychiatry. Key publications feature chapters in 'Communication and Relational Skills in Medicine' (2019), 'The Audio Recorded Cognitive Screen (ARCS): A flexible and versatile instrument for clinic or research' (2013), multiple papers on communicating a schizophrenia diagnosis (2013), and contributions to 'Gene expression imputation across multiple brain regions provides insights into schizophrenia risk' (Nature Genetics, 2019). Awards received include the NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2004), HMRI PULSE Early Career Research Award (2006), Faculty of Health University Publication Prize (2013), University of Sydney Research Publication Prize (2002), and Medal of Excellence in Welfare Studies (1990).