Jason Mattingley

“The freedom to roam at Yarra was terrific. I enjoyed the open space.”

Professor Jason Mattingley discovered a love of science at Yarra Valley Grammar School, although initially he didn’t know where that would lead.

Today he is a Neuroscientist at the University of Queensland. He has spent decades studying the intricacies of the human brain and how it works. Jason’s studies and research so far have taken him from the grounds of Yarra to Cambridge University in England and back to Australia.

“I became interested in Science in my later years at School and halfway through Year 12 I decided I’d do a broad science degree. Physiology and Psychology particularly interested me – I was fascinated with how the nervous system and brain regulate behaviour,” says Jason.

After studying Science at Monash University, Jason studied Clinical Neuropsychology. He spent several years in England before moving to Brisbane to head a new laboratory at the Queensland Brain Institute.

Understanding how our brain decodes the sensory world around us and how the mass of nerve cells that make up our brain give rise to consciousness are puzzles that still fascinate Jason.

“Brain science and behaviour are two of the last great frontiers of science – how we plan, how we control our actions and how we think and feel. These are very exciting areas to work in,” says Jason.

His years at Yarra were happy times with a smattering of adventure. Jason remembers a survival camp in the bush when his and his friend’s campfire became an unexpected inferno.

“We started our fire so that after the camp meeting it would be ready to cook on. But it turned into a bonfire and ignited a tree next to it. The camp leaders had to chop down the tree to stop the blaze spreading. That’s a moment I’ll never forget,” says Jason.

Yarra’s motto still strikes a chord with Jason, too, and he sees it as urging students to lift their hopes and standards and to see the world as a better place.

“My own students now inspire me because they are the thought leaders of the future,” he says.

“They constantly challenge me to think about what else I can learn.”