Sharna Jamadar

Monash Biomedical Imaging Deputy Node Director

Sharna Jamadar is Deputy Director and Head of Clinical Research at MBI, and ARC Future Fellow at the Monash School of Psychological Sciences.

Sharna leads the Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab. Her research is focused on understanding how our life experiences change our brains, and how this may confer resilience to the ageing process.  Capitalising on MBI’s simultaneous PET/MR capabilities, she and her team pioneered the study of ‘glucodynamics’ – moment-to-moment variability in cerebral glucose metabolism, and how these dynamics shape neural networks and behaviour across the lifespan.

An important aspect of Sharna’s cognitive resilience research program is in the neuroscience of parenthood. Her team proposed the novel hypothesis parenthood contributes to resilience to the ageing process. Conceptualising the transition to parenthood as a transformative experience, Sharna’s team have studied the impact of this transformation on brain and behaviour across the lifespan.

Her work has been published widely in high impact journals including PNAS, Science Advances and Trends in Cognitive Science.

Sharna’s work has been supported by 3 consecutive Fellowships from the ARC and NHMRC. She serves on a number of external bodies including as the incoming President of the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society, member of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Brain and Mind; and her work is currently supported by the Australian Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering Elevate program.