Chris Stapelberg

Professional biography

Professor Chris Stapelberg is the Joint Chair in Mental Health for Bond University and Gold Coast University Hospital. He is a senior staff specialist in psychiatry, working at the Gold Coast University Hospital as a consultation liaison psychiatrist. Chris is the Mental Health And Specialist Services Director Of Research, chair of the Gold Coast Hospital Mental Health And Specialist Services Research Committee and until 2016 was the deputy chair of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Research Council. From 2009 to 2016, Chris served as the Clinical Lead in Mental Health at the Griffith University School of Medicine, where he was involved with teaching, curriculum development, and examinations. During this time he received two Griffith University teaching awards. Chris has been researching major depression since 2009. He has undertaken work mapping the network of physiological pathways in depression using a systems biology framework. He is also studying biomarkers in the context of major depression. He completed a PhD studying the impact of depression on heart rate variability in people with, and without, coronary heart disease. He is now the principal investigator, or a co-investigator, on a number of research projects in this area. He is also an Invited Expert on depression for the Global Burden Of Disease Project with the World Health Organisation since 2013.