Welcoming our latest Adjunct, Prof Barbara Barbosa Neves
Joining the Lab as an Adjunct is Professor Barbara Barbosa Neves (PhD, FRSA, FHEA), an award-winning sociologist in ageing and technology. Barbara is an internationally recognised expert on digital inequalities, loneliness, and social isolation in later life. Her research bridges human-computer interaction, gerontology, and sociology to understand not just how technologies work, but in which contexts, for whom, and with what consequences.
Before moving to Australia, she was Associate Director of the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is now Professor of Sociology, incoming Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and Horizon Fellow in AI and Healthy Ageing at the University of Sydney. Barbara leads the AI Social Science team at the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies and is the lead investigator of a national aged care evaluation for the Australian government. She currently holds an ARC Discovery Project, two MRFFs, and a Ramsay Hospital Research Foundation grant.
Her co-designed, mixed-methods research examines how emerging technologies – like AI, robotics, and virtual reality – can support rather than exclude older people. This work has informed technology design and policy across Australia, Canada, and Europe, and has been cited by the UN, OECD, WHO, and EU. Barbara has secured over $7 million in competitive funding and works closely with community organisations, government, and industry to develop inclusive, evidence-based initiatives that uphold dignity and rights in later life. Her contributions have earned 28 awards, including being named a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts (2022) and an ABC Top 5 in Australia (2019).
She has authored over 100 publications and is committed to reaching audiences beyond academia. She has made over 200 media appearances on outlets including ABC, CBC, SBS, The Guardian, written for The Conversation, and featured in the SBS documentary What Does Australia Really Think About Old People?.
Contact: barbara@bbneves.com