Michael Breakspear

University of Newcastle - HMRI Node Director

Professor Michael Breakspear is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle. He has an outstanding international reputation which includes his role as the Editor-in-Chief of Neuroimage, the leading field specific journal. Breakspear is a CI on nearly $30 million of competitive funding (principally the NHMRC), has published 240 papers and has an H-index of 65. He is lead CI of the $6.4 million Prospective Image Study of Ageing and CID and lead of technology of the $18million ADNeT flagship dementia project. Professor Breakspear is also a psychiatrist in the Awabakal Aboriginal Health Centre and the Specialised Coordinator of Training for Scholarly Research in the Hunter New England Mental Health Training Program. Breakspear has published cutting edge translational research in bipolar disorder, major depression, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and neonatal encephalopathy in addition to core imaging methods and modelling.

From 2009-2019, Breakspear was the inaugural Head of the Mental Health Research Program at QIMR Berghofer, one of Australia’s largest Medical Research Institutes. He worked closely with the Director on strategic growth of this newly formed Program which grew to encompass 10 research groups with over 240 researchers spanning wet labs, genetics, epidemiology, imaging and modelling. During this time, Breakspear was instrumental in the initiation and completion of the Herston Imaging Research Facility, a purpose-built clinical research facility with 4 founding academic and clinical partners. Breakspear thereafter chaired the Research Committee coordinating and promoting translational research, clinical governance and imaging protocols.

In 2019 Breakspear accepted the position as Global Professor of Systems Neuroscience at the University of Newcastle, NSW, where he now co-leads the strategic growth of basic and translational neuroimaging at Hunter Medical Research Institute. With co-lead, Ramadan, he has established new partnerships across the University of Newcastle (psychology, physics, engineering), Hunter New England Mental Health, the John Hunter Hospital (medicine, psychiatry, surgery, and the NSW Regional Health Partners, Academic Health Sciences Precinct).