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Dr Chris Macdonald

@drchrismacdonald.bsky.social

Scientist | Founder | Author | 40 Under 40 in Science Sustainability and Health Based at the University of Cambridge Find out more at DrChrisMacdonald.com

2,097 Followers  |  896 Following  |  31 Posts  |  Joined: 20.12.2024  |  1.5461

Latest posts by drchrismacdonald.bsky.social on Bluesky

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My new paper on how to increase sustainable food consumption is continuing to gather positive media attention πŸ™Œ

Thank you to Green Nudges for the feature.

Link to paper:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

Thank you for all of the support!

#sustainablefood #sustainability
#vegan #greennudge

29.11.2025 13:02 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
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Virtual Reality public speaking platform wins top prize at Times Higher Education Awards Cambridge’s Dr Chris Macdonald won the Technological Innovation of the Year category at the Times Higher Education Awards 2025 for his groundbreaking Virtual

Congratulations to @drchrismacdonald.bsky.social, whose VR public speaking platform won at the @timeshighered.bsky.social Awards 2025! πŸ†

Other Cambridge nominees included the PROFILE trial team and Technician Development Advisor John Nicolson.

Read more: bit.ly/4p9V4HI

#THEAwards

14.11.2025 17:54 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸ₯³ We did it!!!

We won the Global EdTech Award for using virtual reality and neuroscience to create the most effective treatment for the fear of public speaking!

Find out more here:
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Original research paper here:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...

#edtech πŸ™Œ

07.11.2025 19:37 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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My new paper reveals how I used consumer insights to create the most effective nudge to increase sales of sustainable food πŸ™Œ

Share far and wide 🌱

Link to open access paper:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #sustainability
#vegan #greennudge

02.11.2025 23:02 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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My new paper on how to increase sustainable food consumption is continuing to gather positive media attention πŸ™Œ

Link to paper:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #sustainability
#vegan #greennudge

22.10.2025 12:50 β€” πŸ‘ 150    πŸ” 40    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 2
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Frontiers | Improving virtual reality exposure therapy with open access and overexposure: a single 30-minute session of overexposure therapy reduces public speaking anxiety Public speaking anxiety is a prevalent issue with significant negative impacts. While virtual reality exposure therapy is an effective treatment, it currentl...

πŸŽ‰ I'll be demoing my virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety this weekend at New Scientist Live!

In my last VR paper, I revealed how my VR tech & overexposure protocol provides the most effective treatment.

Link to the paper here:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...

#anxiety #medtech #edtech

15.10.2025 10:42 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Frontiers | Reducing meat consumption with consumer insights and the nudge by proxy: the anomaly of asking, the power of protein, and illusions of insufficiency and availability High global meat consumption presents significant environmental challenges. Interventions to reduce meat consumption, such as carbon labelling, have shown mo...

πŸ₯³ The new paper has quickly gained over 2000 views!

In the paper, I reveal new and highly effective approaches to increase sustainable meal choices.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #greennudges
#behaviourchange #climatechange
#vegan #sustainability

14.10.2025 21:43 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Frontiers | Reducing meat consumption with consumer insights and the nudge by proxy: the anomaly of asking, the power of protein, and illusions of insufficiency and availability High global meat consumption presents significant environmental challenges. Interventions to reduce meat consumption, such as carbon labelling, have shown mo...

πŸ“’ New paper alert!

In the paper, I explored practical ways to increase sustainable meal choices and I uncovered something highly impactful using a consumer-led approach…

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #greennudges
#behaviourchange #climatechange
#vegan #sustainability

07.10.2025 21:55 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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My new paper on how to increase sustainable food consumption is starting to gather media attention πŸ™Œ

Link to paper:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #sustainability

03.10.2025 12:10 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Frontiers | Reducing meat consumption with consumer insights and the nudge by proxy: the anomaly of asking, the power of protein, and illusions of insufficiency and availability High global meat consumption presents significant environmental challenges. Interventions to reduce meat consumption, such as carbon labelling, have shown mo...

Over 1000 views already on my newly published paper!

In the paper, I explored practical ways to increase sustainable meal choices and I uncovered something highly impactful using a new approach…

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #greennudges

29.09.2025 09:11 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

You can read the full open access paper here:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

27.09.2025 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The ball is in Greggs’ court now...

Earlier this week, my publication revealed a trick that can more than double sales of meat-free products at Greggs.

Today, I shared the findings with them.

I also let them know that I’d be happy to collaborate to help accelerate positive change.

27.09.2025 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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Frontiers | Reducing meat consumption with consumer insights and the nudge by proxy: the anomaly of asking, the power of protein, and illusions of insufficiency and availability High global meat consumption presents significant environmental challenges. Interventions to reduce meat consumption, such as carbon labelling, have shown mo...

πŸ“’ New paper alert!

In the paper, I explored practical ways to increase sustainable meal choices and I uncovered something highly impactful using a consumer-led approach…

πŸ”— Link to open access paper here:
frontiersin.org/journals/sus...

#sustainablefood #greennudges

25.09.2025 12:08 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
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β€˜The room started to spin, my breath grew short’: could I conquer my fear of public speaking? For years, speaking in public has triggered panic attacks. So to overcome them, I road-tested some popular methods, from psychotherapy to virtual reality

I'm back in the news, and this one made me emotional...

Read the full Guardian article for free via link below:
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Please share far and wide - it could be life-changing for anyone who suffers from speech anxiety or the fear of public speaking.

24.08.2025 09:20 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ“’ Exciting job opportunity!

I’m looking for an exceptional Project Coordinator to expand the rollout of a ground-breaking edtech/medtech platform developed at my lab at the University of Cambridge.

Find out more and apply:
lucy.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/pr...

23.08.2025 22:28 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ“’ New article alert!

Want to encourage more sustainable diets? Then don’t talk about sustainability. That’s the surprising takeaway from my research.

Read the full article for free here: theimpactmagazine.org/magaz… (page 22-23)

01.07.2025 17:41 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

The FREE virtual reality classrooms translate key data and concepts from something amorphous into something tangible and experiential. For the first time, students across the globe can β€˜climb’ emissions, β€˜swim’ through water use data, β€˜traverse’ land use metrics, and β€˜hold’ greenhouse gases.

20.06.2025 16:16 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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We did it again πŸ₯³ πŸ₯³ πŸ₯³

We won the Cambridge University Excellence Award (for the third year running!).

For this year’s entry, I used emerging tech to better translate and visualise emissions data.

20.06.2025 16:14 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Please share far and wide - the free treatment is life-changing for anyone who suffers from speech anxiety or the fear of public speaking.

#psychologyresearch #psychology
#virtualreality #publicspeaking
#edtech #healthtech

01.06.2025 12:07 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Frontiers | Improving virtual reality exposure therapy with open access and overexposure: a single 30-minute session of overexposure therapy reduces public speaking anxiety Public speaking anxiety is a prevalent issue with significant negative impacts. While virtual reality exposure therapy is an effective treatment, it currentl...

πŸŽ‰ Exciting research update: My latest paper is now in the top 5% of all 48 million research outputs scored by Altmetric. The paper reveals an innovative and free VR treatment for speech anxiety.

Read the paper for free here:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...

#psychologyresearch #psychology

01.06.2025 12:04 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Earlier this week, I was on BBC Science Hour with Chris Smith and Naga Munchetty. I shared my story of how I created the most effective treatment for speech anxiety and why I made it free for all.

You can access it for free via link in bio.

#socialanxietyΒ #anxiety #vr
#edtech #digitalhealth

08.05.2025 12:31 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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VR device to reduce fear of public speaking Don't get in your own headset...

This week, I was interviewed for the legendary science show, The Naked Scientists...

You can listen to the full episode for free here:
www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/int...

Enjoy!

#Innovation #Technology #EdTech

02.05.2025 17:55 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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What a week…

7 days ago, I launched a free online platform that helps people become more skilled and more confident public speakers.

Find out more at:
www.DrChrisMacdonald.com

#virtualreality #publicspeaking
#edtech #healthtech

#fearofpublicspeaking #speechanxiety
#socialanxiety #anxiety

22.03.2025 17:18 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Free tech eliminates the fear of public speaking Cambridge scientist launches free AI-enabled virtual reality platform that transforms users into skilled and confident public speakers.

Cambridge scientist launches free AI-enabled virtual reality platform that transforms users into skilled and confident public speakers and you can try it for free at #CamFest!

Read more: www.cam.ac.uk/stories/AI-V...

@drchrismacdonald.bsky.social

17.03.2025 16:22 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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I set a simple but ambitious mission: create the most effective treatment for the most common fear, and make it freely available to all. And today, I am so excited to reveal that I succeeded!!!

Links to everything are available on my website (link in bio).

#fearofpublicspeaking #speechanxiety

15.03.2025 21:25 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Free online virtual reality tool helps people tackle public speaking nerves Cambridge scientist behind VR platform says it could help those put off by high cost of speech anxiety treatment

I created the most effective treatment for speech anxiety - and I made it free for all!

I was interviewed about it for The Guardian.

Please share far and wide - this free treatment could be life-changing for anyone who suffers from the fear of public speaking.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

15.03.2025 18:02 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Can a virtual reality headset cure your fear of public speaking? A device that simulates even the most intimidating of audiences can make presentations less of an ordeal, a Cambridge scientist explains

Last week, I was interviewed by Rhys Blakely (Science Correspondent at The Times) about the free treatment I have created for speech anxiety and the fear or public speaking.

Please share far and wide - the free treatment could be life-changing for millions.

www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

15.03.2025 15:00 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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I set out with a simple but ambitious goal: create the most effective treatment for the most common fear, and make it freely and instantly accessible to all.

Today, with the launch of my free online platform, I believe that I have achieved that goal.

Conquer speech anxiety for free (link in bio)

15.03.2025 13:51 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Improving virtual reality exposure therapy with open access and overexposure: a single 30-minute session of overexposure therapy reduces public speaking anxiety (2024) Macdonald. Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Public speaking anxiety is a prevalent issue with significant negative impacts. While virtual reality exposure therapy is an effective treatment, it ...

I used virtual reality to create the most effective treatment for speech anxiety. And the platform will be available for all, for free! from March 15th - #WorldSpeechDay

www.mendeley.com/catalogue/1d...

#ExposureTherapy #SpeechAnxiety #VR #PublicSpeaking

28.02.2025 23:13 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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🚨 I'm going on another tour!

I will be exhibiting my new #virtualreality platform that eliminates the fear of #publicspeaking.

This is your chance to conquer public speaking #anxiety once and for all – for free!

01.02.2025 13:24 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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