Professor Jason Connor

Jason Connor is the Director of the National Centre For Youth Substance Use Research (2008 - 2014, 2017+) at The University of Queensland.

Jason is a clinical psychologist by training and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). He has specialist membership in the APS Health and Clinical Colleges. Jason commenced his academic career after being awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) doctoral scholarship (PhD, 2002) for research into substance use disorders. Since moving from full-time clinical practice to academia, he has successfully combined teaching responsibilities with research publishing over 180 peer reviewed papers and receiving $14 million in research funding as Chief Investigator. He currently leads or co-leads $5.5 million in external research funding.

His main research focus is substance use disorders. Research areas include substance use assessment and treatment, genetic markers of alcohol and nicotine dependence, measurement of alcohol craving, novel psychological models of problem drinking and the prevention of youth substance abuse.

Jason has received awards for his research (NH&MRC Career Development Fellow; Australian Psychological Society Early Career Research Award), teaching (National Carrick Institute Citation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) and service to the profession of psychology (Australian Psychological Society Health College Award of Distinction). In addition to his academic roles, he has an appointment with Queensland Health and continues to offer clinical services.

Examples of recent publications:

Connor J, Hall W.D. (2018). Thresholds for safer alcohol use might need lowering. LANCET, 391(10129):1460-1461.

Connor, J.P., Haber, P.S., Hall, W.D. (2016). Alcohol Use Disorders. LANCET, 387(10022), 988-98.

Connor, J.P., Hall, W.D. (2015). Alcohol burden in low-income and middle-income countries. LANCET, 386(10007), 1922-4.

Connor, J.P., Gullo, M.J., Feeney, G.F.X., Kavanagh, D.J., Young, R.McD. (2014). The relationship between cannabis expectancies and cannabis refusal self-efficacy in a treatment population. Addiction. 109, 111-119.

Connor, J.P., Gullo, M.J., White, A., Kelly, A.B. (2014). Polysubstance use: diagnostic challenges, patterns of use and health. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 27, 269-75.