Steven Kamper

Steve Kamper

Have you ever had the conversation about what you would do for a job if you could do anything at all? That conversation led me to abandoning the burgeoning career I had in my late-20s and enrolling in the undergraduate physiotherapy course at Sydney University. Being the weird old guy in class with all the bright young things had its ups and downs, but overall all went well and I graduated and moved on to treating patients in private practice. What I didn’t realise when I started was that my actual passion lay just adjacent to the job I thought I was heading towards. Following some experience as a research assistant during my undergrad time, I was offered a chance to do a PhD which I began in 2007. My research since then has included work in back and neck pain, research methods, placebo effects and patient expectations, and more recently musculoskeletal pain in children. I was extremely lucky to get the opportunity to spend 3 years in Amsterdam as a postdoc, and since last year I’ve been back in Sydney employed as a research fellow at the George Institute. My time is spent writing papers, applying for money to fund studies, working with postgrad students and junior researchers, presenting research and courses, and then the sort of boring admin stuff that seems to attach itself to work no matter what job you do. Outside of work I like to run, ride my bike, play soccer and have pseudo-intellectual discussions while drinking beer.