Our People

Welcome from our Director

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the first point of entry into the world of mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practice at the University of Melbourne. Our establishment is due to the incredible generosity of Martin and Loreto Hosking. We will deliver ground-breaking research, innovative educational offerings and a world-class engagement series. We will also offer an opportunity for authentic practice, guided sessions and a place for inter-faith and wisdom discussions.

We hope you find much to inform your practice, life, work, and growth among the Contemplative Studies Centre.

Associate Professor Nicholas Van Dam | Inaugural Director of the Contemplative Studies Centre

Learn more about Nicholas

Our team

Director

EA: Cathleen Benevento cjbe@unimelb.edu.au

nicholas.vandam@unimelb.edu.au

Deputy Director

julieta.galante@unimelb.edu.au

Manager, Business and Operations

luke.hambly@unimelb.edu.au +61383441608

Centre Administration Coordinator & EA to Director

cjbe@unimelb.edu.au

Research Fellow - Statistics

cate.bailey@unimelb.edu.au

Insight Fellow

cullan.joyce@unimelb.edu.au

Education Lead

mccawc@unimelb.edu.au

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Mindfulness and Mental Health

karin.matko@unimelb.edu.au

Research Fellow

lillian.ward@unimelb.edu.au

Research Assistant

danielapatricia.arenasdiaz@unimelb.edu.au

Research Assistant, Contemplative Practices and Change

luara.karlson@unimelb.edu.au

Our Research Higher Degree students

Nicholas Bowles
Research project: Quantifying the dose-response effects of meditation
nbowles@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Nicholas' profile
Tim Wood
Research project: Investigating the range of meditation phenomenology
wootw@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Tim's profile
Fatemeh Aghaei
Research project: Recognition of the effect of vocal hygiene combined mindfulness meditation in teachers with voice complaints to enhance teacher wellbeing
aghaei@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Fatemeh's profile
Julia Adams
Research project: Differential predictors of engagement in meditation app use
juliaa1@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Julia's profile
Prai Wattanatakulchat
Research project: Temporal dynamics of meditative mechanisms
praifon.wattanatakulchat@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Prai's profile
Alice McAvoy
Research project: Better together? Mindfulness teachers’ perspectives on how the group format affects mental health outcomes in mindfulness-based programs
amcavoy@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Alice's profile
Dinuk Welagedera
Research project: The interaction between meditation and lifestyle factors, and its effect on cognitive functioning
dinuk.n.welagedera@student.unimelb.edu.au
Read Dinuk's profile

Our senior research affiliates

Associate Professor in Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne

ana.eclair@unimelb.edu.au

Honorary (Professorial Fellow), Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne

gmeadows@unimelb.edu.au

Professor in Public Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne

r.moodie@unimelb.edu.au

Our research affiliates

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney

anita.amorim@sydney.edu.au

NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Orygen

imogen.bell@unimelb.edu.au

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne

lydia.brown@unimelb.edu.au

Research Fellow, Melbourne Climate Futures and Co-Lead – Creativity & Imagination Research Stream, Climate CATCH Lab, The University of Melbourne

s.campbell@unimelb.edu.au

Assistant professor, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia

ausias.cebolla@uv.es

Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St John University, UK

j.childsfegredo@yorksj.ac.uk

Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil

marcelodemarzo@gmail.com

Professor in Psychiatry, University of Zaragoza, Spain

jgarcamp@unizar.es

Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Macau

khychen@um.edu.mo

Research Fellow, Centre for Youth Mental Health

saampras.ganesan@unimelb.edu.au

Lecturer in Buddhist Studies, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne

hannah.gould@unimelb.edu.au

Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University

Takeshi.Hamamura@curtin.edu.au

Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University

tara@drtarahickey.com

Associate Professor in Psychology, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne

caitlin.hitchcock@unimelb.edu.au

Assistant professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, India

ak_heena@psgrkcw.ac.in

Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine

deanna.m.kaplan@emory.edu

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

patrick.kor@polyu.edu.hk

Buddhist chaplain, University of Alberta, Canada

nandini@ualberta.ca

Senior Researcher, University of Oxford Mindfulness Research Centre

jesus.monteromarin@psych.ox.ac.uk

Associate Professor, Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University

I.Nyklicek@tilburguniversity.edu

Psychologist and meditation researcher, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Germany

ott@igpp.de

Director of Research Projects, Emory Spiritual Health, Emory University

roman.palitsky@emory.edu

Principal Research Fellow, Health Economics

chris.schilling@unimelb.edu.au

Dean's Research Fellow, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne

robert.walton@unimelb.edu.au

Research Fellow, Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Estonia

maris.vainre@ut.ee

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Wellbeing and Public Policy, Swansea University, Wales

lowri@lowriwilkie.com

Professor (Environmental Psychology), School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne

kjhw@unimelb.edu.au

Professorial Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne

azalesky@unimelb.edu.au

Welcome from our Director

Our team

Luke Hambly

Cathleen Benevento

Daniela Patricia Arenas Diaz

Luara Karlson-Carp

Our Research Higher Degree students

Our senior research affiliates

Our research affiliates

Dr Anita Amorim

Stephanie Campbell

Dr Ausiàs Cebolla i Martí

Dr Jasmine Childs-Fegredo

A/Prof Marcelo Demarzo

Prof Javier García Campayo

Dr Katherine Hoi Ying Chen

A/Prof Takeshi Hamamura

Dr Tara Hickey

Dr Heena Kamble

Dr Deanna Kaplan

Prof Patrick Kor

Nandini Karunamuni

Dr Jesus Montero-Marin

Dr Ivan Nyklicek

Dr Ulrich Ott

Dr Roman Palitsky

Dr Maris Vainre

Dr Lowri Wilkie