Professor Michael Nicholas is a clinical psychologist and Conjoint Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He serves as Director of Pain Education and the Pain Management Programs at the Pain Management Research Institute (PMRI), University of Sydney, at Royal North Shore Hospital. With over 40 years of experience in the field, Nicholas earned his BSc from the University of Otago in 1972, MSc with Honours from the University of Auckland, Master of Psychology (Clinical) from the University of New South Wales in 1980, and PhD from the University of Sydney in 1988 for his thesis 'An Evaluation of Treatments for Chronic Low Back Pain.' He was promoted to Professor in 2012 and received an Honorary PhD from Örebro University, Sweden, in 2015 for contributions to collaborative pain research.

Nicholas's career includes establishing the first Back Pain Program at Westmead Hospital in 1988, directing the inaugural INPUT cognitive behavioral therapy inpatient multidisciplinary pain management program at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, from 1988 to 1990, and serving as Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of New South Wales from 1990. Since 1994, in a conjoint appointment with the University of Sydney and PMRI, he founded the ADAPT pain management program, delivering over 300 programs that have improved quality of life for patients with severe persistent pain. He has directed the Master of Pain Management program since 2013, an internationally recognized online graduate program. His research focuses on psychosocial contributors to persisting pain, predictors of outcomes, and multidisciplinary interventions, including development of the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), translated into 50 languages and widely used in research and practice, and collaboration on the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire. He led the Work Injury Screening and Early Intervention (WISE) study. Nicholas has published over 170 scientific papers with an h-index of 42 (2018) in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Pain, and Annals of Internal Medicine, plus numerous book chapters; he co-authored 'Manage Your Pain: Practical and Positive Ways of Adapting to Chronic Pain' (2011). Awards include the Australian Pain Society 2018 Distinguished Member Award, honorary FFPMANZCA Fellowship (2009, the only psychologist recipient), and contributions to the National Pain Strategy, international education via IASP, and pain programs in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Professional Email: michael.nicholas@sydney.edu.au