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Celebrating 25 years of research by Darke, Mattick & Swift

NDARC staff in 1993
Date Published:
6 Dec 2013
Contact person:
Marion Downey
Phone:
0401 713 850

NDARC today celebrated 25 years of service of staff members Shane Darke, Richard Mattick and Wendy Swift. All three researchers joined the Centre in 1988 and have contributed to its evolution from a new organisation to an internationally recognised Research Centre of Excellence with over 140 employees.

Professor Shane Darke has published extensively on illicit drug use, particularly opioid misuse and drug-related mortality, including his most recent book, The Life of the Heroin User (2011). His expertise was recognised by the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Research Index, where Professor Darke was named among the most cited sociology researchers in the world between 2000-2008. Professor Darke holds multiple editorial positions, including a regional editorship for Addiction.

Professor Richard Mattick is a former director of NDARC and oversaw NDARC’s move in 2002 from its early lodgings at Prince of Wales Hospital to its current home at UNSW in Randwick. In addition to his long-serving directorship, Professor Mattick has conducted extensive research in such areas as the management of opioid dependence, patterns of drug use among youth and psychostimulant dependence and treatment. He continues to lead large scale research projects including a randomised controlled trial into smoking cessation and a longitudinal study of infant development. Professor Mattick’s extensive international collaborations include editor with the Cochrane Review Group for Drugs and Alcohol and editorial roles at Addiction and Drug and Alcohol Review.

Dr Wendy Swift has conducted extensive research into cannabis use and dependence, including her doctoral thesis on ‘Patterns and correlates of cannabis dependence’, completed at NDARC in 1999. Her research in recent years has provided new evidence on the specifics of the Australian cannabis market. Throughout her career Dr Swift has been a reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals including Addiction and Drug and Alcohol Review and a reviewer for granting bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council

Pictured: Prof Darke, Prof Mattick, Dr Swift and colleagues in 1993.