ProfessorAndrew Campbell

Professor Andrew J. Campbell is an internationally recognised authority in cyberpsychology, digital mental health, and the ethical application of emerging technologies to support human wellbeing. At The University of Sydney, he leads the Digital Health Group and is Chair and Head of the Cyberpsychology Research Group within the Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health.

With more than two decades of experience spanning clinical practice, research, teaching, and policy leadership, Professor Campbell is widely regarded as a pioneer in the integration of psychology, technology, and ethics. His work sits at the intersection of psychology, artificial intelligence, digital health, immersive technologies, and cybersecurity, with a sustained focus on translating rigorous research into real-world systems that improve mental health outcomes at scale.

Research

Professor Campbell’s research program examines how digital technologies shape behaviour, mental health, identity, and social connection across the lifespan. His work spans cyberpsychology, digital mental health, artificial intelligence, immersive technologies, and cybersecurity, with particular expertise in youth mental health, VR/XR digital therapies, gaming, social media, cybercrime victimisation and online harms. Across these domains, he has made substantial scholarly contributions to the design, evaluation, and governance of evidence-based digital and AI-enabled mental health interventions, underpinned by a strong emphasis on clinical safety, ethical design, and real-world impact.

Between 2010 and 2016, he served as an innovation and design research partner with the Cooperative Research Centre for Young and Well, where he led nationally significant research and translation initiatives focused on the safe and effective use of technology to promote youth mental health and wellbeing. This work included the development of national policy guidance in 2013 and helped shape Australia’s early leadership in digital youth mental health.

In 2017, Professor Campbell formally established the Cyberpsychology Research Group (CRG) and has since become a core research partner for major organisations such as Kids Helpline, HP, SIMmersion, Save the Children International, CSIRO, NSW Health, SANE Australia, the Federal Circuit and Family Law Court of Australia, IDCare and the Wellbeing Health & Youth (WH&Y) Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

A major strand of Professor Campbell’s recent research focuses on immersive technologies in healthcare. He has collaborated in ACI funded studies investigating the use of virtual reality in emergency departments at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, demonstrating that brief VR interventions can significantly reduce distress for young people awaiting medical assessment. His immersive technology research also extends to trauma-focused applications, including the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in Australian veterans.

Another defining contribution of his research career is leadership of a longitudinal research program that spanned more than 12 years that created and validated the world’s first secure social media platform designed specifically for group counselling of young people aged 13–25 called ‘MyCircle’. Developed in partnership with yourtown’s Kids Helpline, this platform represents a globally significant innovation in digital mental health service delivery and has informed international best practice for safe, group counselling, of lived experience mental health clients via social networking. It is the only clinically moderated 24/7, peer-to-peer support social media platform certified by the Australian Government National Office of Child Safety.

Over the course of his career, Professor Campbell has attracted more than AUD $40 million in competitive research funding from government, industry, and philanthropic sources with $3.1 million as Lead Investigator. Notable funding achievements include award of $1 million BUPA Health Foundation grant awarded in 2020 to support the development of the MyCircle group counselling platform for Australian youth, as well as leadership roles in major national initiatives such as the $11.2 million Australian Government funded Small Business Cyber Resilience Service, delivered by IDCare under the National Cyber Security Strategy.

Translation, Implementation, Policy and Leadership

A hallmark of Professor Campbell’s career is his sustained commitment to research translation, implementation and policy impact. In 2024 he played a central role in establishing Australia’s first Cyberpsychology Support Centre, delivered by the IDCare Foundation, which embeds mental health care within cyber incident response services for individuals and small businesses affected by cybercrime. He is a member of the IDCare Foundation College of Experts, contributing specialist expertise in cyberpsychology to national cyber resilience and recovery initiatives.

Professor Campbell has provided invited expert input to major national and international policy processes. These include advising for the 2023 Australian Psychological Society report for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on the ethical and trauma-informed use of digital and immersive mental health technologies. In the same year he participated in a World Health Organization expert roundtable on youth mental health in digital environments, where he was one of only two Australian representatives.

His scholarship in technoethics examines how digital systems can be designed, implemented, and governed in ways that are psychologically safe, developmentally appropriate, and socially responsible. This work has informed national and international policy discussions on youth wellbeing, cyber resilience, ethical artificial intelligence, and digital mental health. His international standing in the field is further reflected in his role as the Inaugural Australasian Editor of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

Professor Campbell currently co-leads the Health Equity and Implementation group for the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health Research, which is committed to consumer engagement and partnership advancement, ensuring that research is always relevant, impactful, and directly translates into tangible health benefits.

Teaching and Clinical Work
Professor Campbell is an award-winning educator with more than 30 years of teaching excellence across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Alongside his academic career, he has practised for over 20 years as a Registered Psychologist specialising in the mental health of children and adolescents. This extensive clinical experience has been foundational in shaping a highly applied teaching and research agenda that focuses on harnessing both common and emerging technologies such as AI, VR/XR, video games, social networking platforms, smartphones, and wearable devices, with the goal to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families, and service systems using technology.

He has led the design and delivery of innovative, research-led curricula in psychology, cyberpsychology, and digital health, consistently integrating cutting-edge scholarship with real-world applications. His teaching is widely recognised for its clarity, relevance, and strong student engagement, as reflected in consistent outstanding student feedback and multiple teaching awards. Professor Campbell has co-authored two textbooks on Human Development with the renowned psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo and has taught the units HSBH1005 Human Development and BIDH3146 Cyberpsychology in Digital Health at The University of Sydney for more than two decades.

In recognition of his teaching excellence, he received the Australian Psychological Society Award for Outstanding Psychology Lecturer in NSW in 2017, alongside the former Faculty of Health Sciences (now the Sydney School of Health Sciences) Outstanding Lecturer Award for teaching in Health Sciences and Cyberpsychology. In 2018, he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Professor Campbell is also a highly regarded PhD and Masters supervisor and mentor, having graduated more than 15 PhD students as lead supervisor and over 30 Honours students. In 2023, he was awarded Supervisor of the Year by the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) in the School of Medical Sciences, recognising his sustained excellence in higher degree research supervision and student development.

Professional Recognition and Engagement 

Professor Campbell is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on the impacts of consumer technologies on mental health and wellbeing, regularly contributing expert commentary through national and international media outlets and community forums. In 2024, he received the CyberTherapy Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Conference for Cyberpsychology (CyPsy27) held at Arizona State University, USA. This was in recognition of his outstanding and sustained contributions to technology-enabled healthcare.

His international profile has continued to grow through keynote invitations, global collaborations, and visiting appointments, including his appointment in as Adjunct Professor of Cyberpsychology at Asia Pacific University of Innovation and Technology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2026 Professor Campbell commenced private international consulting to technology companies and startups via he company AJC Consulting - Cyberpsychology for improved Digital User Engagement Strategies, where his business advice for planning the best UX design testing in AI, VR, Gaming and Social Media has been leveraged successfully using the evidence-based of cyberpsychology research.