EXPERTS SEARCH

Dr Gavin Abbott is the statistician and data manager for the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research (IPAN)

AsPr Brad Aisbett is the Deputy Head of School for the School of Exercise and
Nutrition Sciences. He has previously served as Associate Head of School
Teaching and Learning (2016-2018) and Higher Degree by Research student
coordinator (2013-2015). He is unit chair for HSE728 Applied Sport Science
Project - Part 1 within the Master of Applied Sport Science. He has previous
chaired units in Exercise Prescription and Exercise and Sports Science
Practicum within the Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science. AsPr Aisbett
leads a research program that uses exercise science to enable workplaces to
promote and preserve the health and safety of workers in physically demanding
occupations (e.g., military, emergency services, nursing). He has worked in
partnership with over 20 organisations in these areas over the past 10 years,
and supervised seven PhD students to completion. His research has contributed
to health, safety and personnel selection policy and procedures for emergency
service workers at both state and national levels.

Research Groups
AsPr Aisbett leads the Healthy and Active Workers Group within the Active
Living Domain for the Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition

My PhD project aims to investigate the impact of plant-based protein diets on muscle and bone health in older adults. Through this research, I hope to contribute to future dietary recommendations and strategies that support both healthy ageing and environmental sustainability. 

I hold both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition, as well as being an accredited Clinical Dietitian. I have experience working across multiple randomised controlled trials, as well as certifications in Good Clinical Practice (GCP), DEXA operation, and low FODMAP dietary management.

I am a PhD candidate at Deakin University and Aston University (Cotutelle PhD Program - ADCP), researching food avoidant eating behaviour phenotypes in school-aged children.

 

My research explores how factors such as temperament, sensory sensitivity, and executive function shape distinct patterns of food avoidant eating behaviours during middle childhood. With a background in food science and cognitive neuroscience, I am passionate about understanding the intersection between sensory experiences, cognitive processes, and eating behaviour.

I am an Australian Research Council DECRA, Senior Research Fellow at the Deakin Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition who drives evidence-based outcomes to improve family health and education. I work with families, allied health, education and community stakeholders, large scale health organisations, not-for-profit organisations, and private enterprise to ensure my research meets their critical needs. My current fellowship involves co-designing a screen time management program with families to improve children’s social skills, wellbeing and family functioning in the current technology environment. 

 

·       Experience conceiving, conducting, and disseminating research with and for families influencing inter/national and state health and education practice and policy.

·       Awarded stakeholder engagement skills aligning strategic outcomes with research rigor.

·       Track record of building a funded research program and producing meaningful outcomes.

·       Recognised strong and adaptable communication and dissemination skills for a variety of audiences.

·       Research Group Leader: Physical activity and sedentary behaviour from infancy to young adulthood, IPAN

 

Latest research: 

• Health-related quality of life in school-aged boys and girls: longitudinal associations with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the HAPPY study: 10.1186/s12887-026-06961-w
• Age of first digital device use and screen media use at age 15: A cross-sectional analysis of 384,591 participants from 55 countries. doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2025.100596

I am an education and research focused academic and an internationally recognised emergent leader in sociocultural studies of sports coaching. I research sports coaching, sport, leisure, and physical activity through a sociocultural and feminist lens. One stream of my work focuses on the design and integration of innovative critically informed coach learning and development to promote more effective and ethical coaching practices. My other stream focuses on understanding and addressing the challenges that women and girls and other equity-deserving groups face within sport, leisure, and physical activity contexts to promote more inclusive and socially just outcomes for these populations.

 

I completed my PhD in 2014 at the University of Alberta, Canada before moving to Northumbria University, UK as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in sports coaching in 2018. The title of my PhD thesis was "What can Foucault tell us about fun in sport? A Foucauldian critical examination of the discursive production and deployment of fun within coaching contexts."

 

I am a member of the Centre for Sport Research (CSR) within the Deakin Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) and the IPAN-CSR Women in Sport Research Co-Lead. I am also an Associate Editor for two leading sport journals (Sports Coaching Review and the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport) and was awarded Sports Coaching Review "Reviewer of the Year" in 2024 for my services to my scholarly community. 

 

Research Groups

Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition/Centre for Sport Research (IPAN-CSR)
https://ipan.deakin.edu.au/research/centre/centre-for-sport-research/

 

IPAN-CSR Women in Sport Research Lead

https://ipan.deakin.edu.au/research/centre/centre-for-sport-research/women-in-sport/

Body, Movement, and Culture Research Group (BMC)
https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/bmc-research-group/home

My consumer-led research focuses on improving access to evidence-based nutrition and exercise services for all cancer survivors with practical research for the health professionals who deliver it.

 

Dr Brenton Baguley is a Victorian Cancer Agency Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University, an Advanced Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD), and an executive committee member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Nutrition Group.

 

Brenton is a senior research fellow leading multidisciplinary research to improve cancer survivorship, with a focus on innovative service delivery (mHealth) for managing chronic disease and the long-term musculoskeletal side-effects of cancer treatment. He has been awarded $3.89 million in competitive fellowships and grants as Chief Investigator which all focus on supportive care in cancer.

 

From 2023-2026 Brenton was funded by the Victorian Cancer Agency to co-design an online platform (ProHealth) to provide nutrition and exercise education material, video-consultations, and reduce barriers to supportive care in men with prostate cancer. This program of work is in collaboration with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and will co-design, pilot test, and evaulated this model of care to support men with prostate cancer. 

 

As a key member in the Nutrition & Dietetics teaching team, Brenton teaches or unit chairs the medical nutrition therapy and clinical practice units. Brenton's teaching style is grounded by relationship building with health services to support, develop, and empower students to be future leaders in Dietetics. 

 

Brenton is deeply commited to research leadership and mentoring clinicians and students that are interested in growing their research skills and expertise in Nutrition & Dietetics. He has availability and capacity for new PhD students that are interested in nutrition oncology. 

My PhD research, which seeks to bring together the worlds of physical activity and mental health in supporting victim-survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) / intimate partner violence (IPV) was borne from a desire to find evidence-based ways of seeing trauma 'therapy' a little differently. My professional expertise as an accredited clinical counsellor and somatic psychotherapist with a special interest in trauma is at the core of my research. As a therapist I work at the fascinating (and often frustrating) intersection of women's health and trauma, supporting women who have a range of complex mental and physical health challenges. Trauma - diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex-post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), or sub-clinically as related to attachment trauma or in the context of abusive relationships - is a multifaceted and highly inter-related field. The research I am excited to be conducting recognises the importance of working with the 'whole' person when working with the effects of trauma which show up as a constellation of physical, physiological, psychological, emotional and social challenges, complaints and symptoms.

I am a trauma-focused somatic psychotherapist and I am an accredited practitioner of Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), a gold-standard treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and am trained in other evidence-based trauma therapies including Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT-C), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Compassionate Inquiry (CI) and somatic psychotherapies. I have worked in private practice for over eight years and within community-based settings prior to that, including some volunteer work on the support phone line at the Women's Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE) service in Melbourne. Having an appreciation of how modalities translate from research settings into the real-world has helped inform an implementation-science approach to my PhD research - I am driven by the desire to support more women in their recovery from GBV.

During the second year of my PhD I am one of the three HDR Student Coordinators within the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) supporting HDR students to have full and complete PhD experiences at Deakin. This has involved regular liaison with the School HDR Director Associate Head of School, Research and with other HDR Representatives at Deakin. We organise tailored seminars aimed to support the varied interests of HDR students and a range of social events to foster a sense of HDR community and connection between the different schools and campuses.

I believe in working in collaboratively and have enjoyed working with other HDR students in their research endeavours, including supporting them in reviews, providing feedback in practice confirmation of candidature sessions and working within different teams within IPAN.