Rate My Professor Ben Colagiuri

Professor Ben Colagiuri is Professor and Head of School in the School of Psychology within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. He received his PhD in Psychology from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney in 2010. After his doctorate, he spent time at other universities before returning as staff member around 2012. He became Head of the School of Psychology in 2023 and Academic Co-Director of the Brain and Mind Centre in February 2026.

Colagiuri's research examines how expectancies influence human behaviour, focusing on placebo and nocebo effects. He and his team have created novel experimental models to uncover mechanisms of these effects for pain, sleep, nausea, and related conditions. He leads the Sydney Placebo Lab and the Australian Learning Group. His research has secured over $7 million in competitive funding, including multiple Australian Research Council Discovery Grants. Colagiuri has authored more than 100 scientific papers, achieving over 5,800 citations and an h-index of 39 according to Google Scholar. Prominent publications include "The placebo effect: From concepts to genes" (Neuroscience, 2015), "Autonomic arousal as a mechanism of the persistence of nocebo hyperalgesia" (The Journal of Pain, 2018), "Nocebo hyperalgesia, partial reinforcement, and extinction" (Clinical Journal of Pain, 2015), and "Warning about side effects can increase their occurrence: an experimental model using placebo treatment for sleep difficulty" (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2012). He has received major awards such as the Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Prize for Basic Science from the International Association for the Study of Pain (2024), the Australian Psychological Society Media Award for Public Engagement (2019), and the International Society for Behavioural Medicine Early Career Award (2016). Through his leadership, Colagiuri advances multidisciplinary initiatives connecting discovery science, clinical trials, policy, and societal benefits in brain and mind research.