Dr Bernadette Fitzgibbon is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellow at Monash University. Bernadette graduated with her PhD in 2012, conducting the first clinical and neurophysiological studies of a new pain phenomenon in amputees. Her current research utilises modern neuroscientific techniques including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Electroencephalography to explore the neurobiology of pain perception and to develop novel treatment approaches for chronic pain syndromes. She also has a significant interest in social cognition and how pain can be used as a model to explore how we understand the thoughts, feelings and actions of other people.

She has received several awards for her research including the 2014 Bethlehem Griffith Foundation Young Researcher Award, a 2014 Tall Poppy Award from the Australian Institute of Policy of Science and the 2012 Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence (Monash University). Her work has been covered in top media outlets including ‘New Scientist’ magazine, ‘Australasian Science’ and ‘The Psychologist’. She has also been invited to write online pieces for The Conversation and the Body in Mind blog, and has been interviewed on 3RRR and ABC1 television.