Profile
Amanda Boyes is a PhD student and research assistant on the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS), a ground-breaking youth mental health research project conducted at the Thompson Institute.
Her PhD project investigates neurobiological markers of resilience in early adolescence, with a particular focus on the brain's subcortical grey matter volume.
Amanda's psychology honours project looked at the relationship between the brain's cortical thickness, cognition and psychological distress in early adolescence.
Amanda is involved in a range of research activities on LABS, including participant assessments, ethics, data analysis and writing journal articles. She is also active in LABS neuroimaging data auditing and processing. Under supervision, Amanda developed processing guidelines for analysing MRI structural data.
Amanda holds a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Criminal Justice Major) (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) (First Class Honours).
Watch a 3-minute video summary of Amanda's research or read some media about her first LABS paper as lead author.
Professional memberships
- Society for Mental Health Research (SMHR)
- IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health
- International Association for Youth Mental Health (IAYMH)
- Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association (ANZMH)
Awards
- 2021 USC 3-Minute Thesis Finalist and People's Choice Award Winner ($500)
- 2020 (Postgraduate Student Student Award) - Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend Scholarship
- 2015 (Staff Award) - USC Vice-Chancellor and President's Award for Excellence in Service
Research areas
- Youth mental health
- Wellbeing
- Neuroimaging
- Early intervention - mental health