BIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

Prof Andrew Scholey is director of the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University, Melbourne. He is a leading international researcher into the neurocognitive effects of natural products, supplements and food components, having published over 220 peer-reviewed journal articles, 23 book chapters and 2 books. 

He is Professor of Brain and Behavioural Sciences at Swinburne and co-director of the NICM Collaborative Centre for the Study of Natural Medicines and Neurocognition. In 1998, he established the Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit at Northumbria University, UK (now the Brain Performance and Nutrition Research Centre) and was the Unit’s director until joining the then Brain Sciences Institute at Swinburne in 2007. Professor Scholey was also co-director of the UK’s Medicinal Plant Research Centre and remains as honorary director of Neurocognitive trials.

Andrew has been lead investigator in a series of landmark studies into the human biobehavioural effects of natural products, and their neurocognition-enhancing and anti-stress/anxiolytic properties. These include first-into-human, placebo-controlled trials evaluating Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, Melissa officinalis, Salvia officinalis, Salvia lavandulaefolia and guaraná. These were sufficiently rigorous to merit publication in high impact mainstream psychopharmacology journals and have been widely cited (Scopus h-index = 52). 

He has attracted around 25 million dollars in research funding, including as Chief Investigator on national competitive grants from the UK, Europe and Australia as well as from many industry bodies in Europe, North America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.   

In 2006 Andrew took a six-month sabbatical at the Nestlé Research Centre, Switzerland during the establishment of their Cognitive Sciences group. He acts as a consultant to many industry bodies, was expert advisor to the International Life Sciences Institute Expert Committee on Nutrition and Mental Performance and an expert witness to the UK Parliamentary Forum on Food and Health Inquiry on Diet and Behaviour. He has also acted as an advisor to the Canadian Ministry of Health.

Andrew was part of the inaugural Australian Research Council Impact and Engagement panel for Health and medical Sciences.

Andrew has supervised over 20 PhDs and over 100 honours students. He reviews grants for national and international funding bodies and is on the editorial board of PLoS ONE, Phytotherapy Research and Nutrients. He is committed to the public dissemination of science with numerous appearances in the print, audiovisual and digital media.