Professor Michele Sterling is the program leader of the Improving health outcomes after musculoskeletal injury program at RECOVER Injury Research Centre. She is the director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury. She has a discipline background as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist and is a fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Her main focuses of research are: the physiological and psychological factors underlying musculoskeletal pain and injury, the prediction of outcome following whiplash injury, and the clinical translation of research findings to clinical practice. She is an associate editor of Pain Reports and the European Journal of Physiotherapy and serves on the editorial board of JOSPT and Musculoskeletal Science and Practice. Professor Sterling is an elected council member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and chair of the Scientific Committee for the Australian Pain Society. She has received numerous awards for her research including The University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award in 2005.