Speakers - ICBM 2027

Meet the Speakers

Learn from Global Experts

Hear from leading researchers and practitioners driving progress in behavioral medicine and improving health worldwide.

Keynote Speakers

Prof Aleksandra Łuszczyńska

Professor and Director

SWPS University

Prof Aleksandra Łuszczyńska

Professor and Director

Aleksandra Luszczynska is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the CARE-BEH Center for Applied Research on Health Behavior and Health at SWPS University (Poland) and Research Affiliate at Lyda Hill Center for Human Resilience, University of Colorado (USA). She evaluates policies and interventions promoting healthy diets, physical activity, and reduced sedentary behavior, with an emphasis on obesity prevention and treatment. A Fellow of the EHPS and IAAP, her major honors include the ISBM Early Career Award, the IAAP Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and the Polish Prime Minister's Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements. She serves as Senior Editor for Social Science & Medicine (Health Psychology section). Continuously funded since 2009 by the European Union and Poland’s National Science Centre, she ranks among the top 2% of most-cited researchers worldwide, with over 200 publications and 12,700 citations (h-index = 54; Scopus).

Prof Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Professor

Brigham Young University

Prof Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Professor

Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. She is also the co-director of the Social Connection in America, a 25-year national survey, and the founder of the Social Connection Institute. She is internationally recognized for her pioneering research on social connection and health, including seminal findings showing that lacking social connection is a major risk factor for premature mortality comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. She is recognized by Clarivate as one of the top 1% most influential scientists in the world. She served as the lead author of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Isolation and Loneliness and advises global organizations, including the WHO, CDC, United Nations, and OECD. Her work bridges science and policy to advance evidence-based action for a healthier, more connected society. Her TEDx talk and frequent media features have helped bring global attention to the critical role of social connection.

Prof Jeffery Braithwaite

Founding Director & Professor

Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University

Prof Jeffery Braithwaite

Founding Director & Professor

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite BA, DipLR&theLaw, MIR (Hons I), MBA, PhD, FIML, FCHSM, FFPHRCP (UK), FAcSS (UK), Hon FRACMA, FAHMS is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University and Professor of Health Systems Research. An internationally recognised leader in health services and systems research, his work focuses on quality and safety, healthcare resilience, climate change, accreditation, leadership, and health system reform, applying complexity science to improve healthcare performance. He currently serves as Chair of the International Academy for Quality and Safety and previously served as President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) from 2020 to 2024. Professor Braithwaite holds multiple international visiting and adjunct appointments and collaborates extensively with governments, health services, and research organisations worldwide. He has authored more than 1,550 publications, including 17 books, delivered over 160 keynote addresses, and secured more than $236 million in career research funding. His work has shaped international policy and practice to strengthen health systems and improve outcomes for patients and populations.

Prof Daryl O'Connor

Professor

University of Leeds

Prof Daryl O'Connor

Professor

Daryl O'Connor is Professor of Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Leeds, UK. He is a registered health psychologist with strong research interests in psychobiology and currently leads the Health and Social Psychology Research Group in the School as well as heads up the Group's Laboratory for Stress and Health Research (STARlab). Professor O’Connor, and his team, conduct world-leading research that focuses on investigating the effects of stress and psychological interventions on physical and mental health outcomes, alongside work that explores the effectiveness of interventions to improve uptake of cancer screening. His work has been published in the very best journals in his field and he's a strong advocate for the promotion of open research practices. Daryl has held numerous leadership positions nationally and internationally, is President-Elect of ISBM, and has been elected fellow of major learned societies. He is Editor-in-Chief for Cogent Psychology and co-Editor-in-Chief (from January 2027) of Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine.

Prof Aleksandra Łuszczyńska

Professor and Director

SWPS University

Prof Aleksandra Łuszczyńska

Professor and Director

Prof Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Professor

Brigham Young University

Prof Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Professor

Prof Jeffery Braithwaite

Founding Director & Professor

Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University

Prof Jeffery Braithwaite

Founding Director & Professor

Prof Daryl O'Connor

Professor

University of Leeds

Prof Daryl O'Connor

Professor

Master Lecture Speakers

Prof Cecilia Cheng

Professor

The University of Hong Kong

Prof Cecilia Cheng

Professor

Professor Cecilia Cheng is the Eugene Chuang Professor in Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Hong Kong, Director of Cyberpsychology and Resilience Enhancement (CARE) Lab, and a leading scholar on information technology (IT) disorder and digital well-being. Drawing on social, personality, health, cross-cultural, and cyberpsychology, her research examines how IT use shapes mental and physical health and translates evidence into prevention, education, and community initiatives. She is an elected Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, and serves as Director-at-Large of the International Council of Psychologists. Her honors include the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, Cambridge Hughes Hall Fellowship, and the Research Grants Council Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship. She is recognized among Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists. Professor Cheng currently serves as Senior Editor of Social Science & Medicine and Associate Editor of Health Psychology Review, leading journals in health and behavioral science.

Prof Felix Naughton

Professor

University of East Anglia

Prof Felix Naughton

Professor

Felix Naughton is a registered Health Psychologist and Professor of Health Psychology at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. He is co-lead of the UEA Addictions Research Group and leads a research programme on digital interventions for health behaviour change. His work draws on behavioural science and digital health to develop highly personalised and scalable interventions to support behaviour change. His research focuses on smoking cessation, with a broader interest in the development and evaluation of innovative technology-mediated approaches to behaviour change, including Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions and AI chatbots. Felix is a Fellow of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) and European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) and has contributed to national policy and practice through membership of multiple UK advisory committees, including as a topic expert on behaviour change for NICE.

Daryl O’Connor

Ph.D., UK

President Elect

Daryl O’Connor

Ph.D., UK

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Debate Speakers

Prof Martin S. Hagger

Professor

Department of Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced

Prof Martin S. Hagger

Professor

Martin Hagger is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at University of California, Merced. He is also Visiting Professor of Behavior Change at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He has been visiting Professor at the Universities of Bordeaux, Genoble, and Hong Kong Baptist University. At UC Merced, he is Director of the Social and Health Psychology Applied Behavioural Research for Prevention and Promotion (SHARPP) Lab and former Faculty Chair of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts and Provost’s Faculty Fellow. His research focuses on the determinants of health behavior, the mechanisms and processes of behavior change, and behavior change interventions. He is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the American Psychological Association (APA) journal Motivation Science. He has previously served as Editor-in-Chief of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Stress and Health, and Health Psychology Review, and Senior Editor (Health Psychology) of Social Science and Medicine, and is currently editorial board member of eleven other journals. He has received numerous awards including a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher Award five years running (2020-2025), and the Distinguished Health Psychology Contribution Award from the International Association of Applied Psychology. He is a Fellow of the APA Division 38, Society of Health Psychology and APA Division 8, Social Psychology, the European Health Psychology Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Prof Mike Weed

Professor and Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor

Canterbury Christ Church University

Prof Mike Weed

Professor and Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor

Mike Weed is Professor of Applied Policy Sciences and Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. His work draws on a wide range of social science disciplines, including social psychology, sociology, economics, geography and policy science, to interrogate, inform and improve policy in the applied domains of public health, physical activity, physical education, sport, tourism, transport, urban development and major events. His research focuses on how evidence is used in policy, and evidence of how policy is developed, as well as the effectiveness and comparative effectiveness of policy alternatives, including counterfactuals. Funded by, inter alia, the UK Departments of Health, of Education, and of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the National Health Service, the Mayor of London and the Economic and Social Research Council, his work is cited in Parliament and Ministerial speeches and has shaped government and national agency investment in physical activity programmes, public health policy, and sport infrastructures. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sport & Tourism (Taylor & Francis), Editor of the SAGE Library of Sport & Leisure Management, and Co-Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity Policy & Practice.

Daryl O’Connor

Ph.D., UK

President Elect

Daryl O’Connor

Ph.D., UK

Carina Chan

Ph.D., Australia

Treasurer

Carina Chan

Ph.D., Australia