Dr Raymond Matthews

Dr Raymond Matthews is a sleep and fatigue researcher at the University of South Australia’s Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre. Dr Matthews’ research interests in sleep and fatigue stem from a background in military aviation, with a primary focus on neurocognitive performance in individuals, as well as team environments, and interactions with technology.

Dr Matthews outputs have improved productivity, safety and health in high-intensity operational environments. This has been achieved through experiments investigating scheduling and working-time effects on errors and performance, identifying technological and physiological countermeasures to protect against fatigue-related errors, exploring teams cohesion under conditions of stress and fatigue, and utilising simulation, augmented, and virtual reality environments to test neurobehavioral performance in operational environments.

After being awarded the Tony Winefield PhD Prize for the best PhD thesis, Dr Matthews undertook simulation based research at the Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, CQUniversity, followed by a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. During this Fellowship and as an Adjunct Research Fellow at Stockholm University’s Stress Research Institute, Dr Matthews investigated the performance of on-call physicians at Sweden’s largest hospital. Dr Matthews retuned to UniSA in 2019 and was awarded the UniSA Early Carer Researcher Award for Research Excellence that year.

Dr Matthews’ current industry partners and collaborators include the Defence Science Technology Group, Naval Postgraduate School - US Navy, Thales UK, Lockheed Martin Australia, and NASA Ames Research Centre. Dr Matthews is leading research programs focused on the interactions of the sleep and circadian systems, the effects of sleep loss and shift work and the ways people protect themselves against fatigue-related errors using scheduling and countermeasures.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

Work history

2019 – Current: Research Fellow, Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Australia

2017 – Current: Adjunct Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

2017 – Current: Adjunct Research Fellow, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden

2017 – Current: Adjunct Research Fellow, Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity, Australia

2017 – 2019: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

2017 – 2019: Visiting Researcher, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden

2016 – 2017: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, (Psychology Honours Coordinator, Honours Thesis Coordinator, Course Coordinator and Psychology Lecturer), Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, School of Human, Health and Social Sciences, CQUniversity, Australia.

2015 -2016: Psychology Course Coordinator and Lecturer, School of Human, Health and Social Sciences, CQUniversity, Australia.

2015 – 2015: Campus Development Officer, Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, CQUniversity, Australia.

2012 – 2015: Research Assistant, Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, CQUniversity, Australia.

2008 - 2012: Research Assistant, Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia, Australia.

2009 - 2012: Tutor and guest lecturer, various psychology and research methods courses. University of South Australia, Australia.