On average, we spend 25 years of our life asleep. You would think with that much practice we would all be excellent sleepers! Instead, we are in the midst of a sleep-deprivation crisis. In today’s fast-paced, digitally-connected world, a good night’s sleep is more elusive than ever before.

As a Research Fellow at CQUniversity’s Appleton Institute, Dr Vincent investigates how to improve sleep in our communities. She particularly focuses on workers in high-risk industries, many of whom are shiftworkers – firefighters, doctors, nurses, miners. Her research directly informs workplace policies with the goal of creating a healthier and safer, shiftwork workforce.

Grace also has many other research interests and has collaborated on projects with researchers from a wide range of disciplines including: Exercise and Sports Science, Human Factors, Psychology, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Physiotherapy, Speech Pathology, Podiatry, Health Economics and Allied Health.

Grace was awarded her PhD from Deakin University (2016) and completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) at Auckland University (2011). She has over 60 publications and more than $1 million in research funding. Grace is a South Australian Tall Poppy (2020), winner of the National 5-Minute Research Pitch Competition (2018) and received the CQUniversity Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Research (2019).

Grace is a passionate advocate for diversity in STEM and enjoys mentoring the STEM leaders of tomorrow. Her scientific outreach includes public talks, laboratory tours, and numerous media engagements – all with aim of promoting a good night’s sleep.

A full list of her research publications can be viewed here: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grace_Vincent.

Research Supervision Philosophy

I have a student-focused approach to my RHD (Honours, Masters, PhD) supervision activities which aligns with CQUniversity’s goal of delivering innovative, student-centered education. Specifically, I aim to align the candidate’s career aspirations with their research activities (e.g., opportunities to publish, review journal articles). I manage students’ project milestones via weekly meetings (Masters and PhD) or fortnightly (Honours) with progress routinely evaluated.

I have previously or currently supervise programs of research for 1 post-doctoral research fellow and 8 PhD students (1 on-time completion, current: 4 principal supervisor, 3 associate supervisor). I have also supervised 17 Honours students (15 First Class, 4 accepted in PhD programs, 3 accepted into national Clinical Master of Psychology programs). Students under my supervision have published journal articles (30), are recipients of PhD scholarships (4), been awarded Summer Research scholarships (5), travel awards (3), presented at national and international conferences (17 presentations), are a CI on a successful grant (1) and placed in 3-min thesis competitions (3).

I prefer to supervise students in team-based environments, and therefore supervise all my students with at least one other colleague. We have the ability to supervise students in Adelaide (where we are based) or by distance (elsewhere in Australia). If you are a student and have aspirations to do Honours, Masters, PhD or would like some research experience, please do not hesitate to get in contact to have a chat. We have a range of projects available, and can also work with you to develop new projects within our areas of expertise.