In sync with time
Associate Professor Gerard Kennedy is a world-renowned chronobiologist and psychologist.
"I only decided to go to university at the age of 27. My first jobs out of high school were as an animal husbandry technician at the Melbourne and Werribee Open Range Zoos.
I became interested in sleep disorders and how they related to the human mind after working as a research assistant at La Trobe University for one of the first chronobiologists in Australia, Professor Stuart Armstrong.
When I’m not lecturing at VU, I’m a senior consultant psychologist to the departments of respiratory and sleep medicine at the Austin Hospital and Monash Medical Centre.
I’m one of the chief investigators in the Sleep Health in Quadriplegia research program being carried out at the Austin Hospital investigating the effects of melatonin treatment on quadriplegics.
The positive results in the clinical trials undertaken so far have resulted in an extra $2 million granted by the TAC to the program and an additional $1.3 million to establish a new spinal cord research centre at Austin Health in Heidelberg."
Staff profile
