Futures of Gambling Studies

Doctor in Psychology, with background in Biological Sciences and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dr. Elena is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Valencia in Spain, investigating the potential of virtual reality to improve the assessment of gambling disorder. In this project, she also collaborates with the National Addiction Centre at King's College London, United Kingdom (UK), as a visiting research fellow. Previously, she investigated cognitive and physiological effects of non invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) in low and high risk gambling during her PhD project, conducted at the University of East London in the UK. As part of her PhD project, she conducted a clinical trial at the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic to investigate the combination of NIBS with cognitive behavioural therapy, and completed a research internship at Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Harvard Medical School, United States. Her main interest is to continue investigating the underlaying neurophysiological mechanisms of addictive behaviours, with the ultimate aim to find alternative and cost-effective interventions that can improve current treatment approaches for addictive behaviours.

Jenny is a PhD Student NIHR Doctoral Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She looks at local government level strategies to address gambling harms, specifically using public health approaches and considering commercial determinants of harm. She is currently a committee member on the UK national guideline for gambling harms. Jenny is a medical doctor (general practitioner) in East London, UK, and has a masters in Public Health from University of Manchester, UK. She is also a Honorary Senior Lecturer at Barts and The London Medical School, UK. Her academic interests include teaching at the Primary Care/Public health interface.

Dr Stephanie Merkouris is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University and is currently the recipient of a New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her main research interests relate to the development and evaluation of evidence-based treatments for individuals impacted from their own or someone else’s gambling behaviour, and in particular how advances in technology can be used to advance such interventions.

Academically, Dr. Thomas Babila Sama, Ph.D is a holder of a Doctor of Social Sciences degree (Ph.D) (obtained 10/2012), major in Social and Public Policy, from the University of Jyväskylä - Finland. His research interests include: social and public policy, addiction research, specifically, alcohol and gambling policy research, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and labour markets and migration. He also has a Master’s of Social Sciences degree (obtained 2007), major in Social and Public Policy, from the University of Jyväskylä - Finland. His Bachelor’s degree is in Anthropology (obtained 2003) from the University of Yaounde 1 - Cameroon. Furthermore, he has a Post Graduate Certificate In Education from Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences Teacher Education College - Finland (obtained 2011), and a Teachers’ Grade 1 Certificate from Government Teachers’ Training College (GTTC) Kumba - Cameroon (obtained 1995). Professionally, Thomas works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Research, Unit of Social and Public Policy, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Viktorija completed her PhD in Health Economics at the University of Exeter. Her PhD assessed the impact of obesity on education and employment outcomes, with specific focus on evaluating the quality of the causal methodology that was used to estimate the impact of obesity on education and employment outcomes. Currently, she is working at the University of Glasgow on multiple projects that aim to assess the impact of gambling activity on the likelihood of experiencing gambling harms and the impact of gambling on the wider macroeconomy. Her research interests also include the economics of obesity and causal inference methods for social sciences research.

Dr. W. Spencer Murch is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. He holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2022-2024). Dr. Murch obtained his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2020. His research seeks to develop knowledge and harm-reduction systems for addictive digital products including online gambling apps and websites.