Welcome to my personal website. This site contains information about my research and academic citizenship activities. It contains a list of my publications, some blog posts and links to my other web profiles. Note that I’m not great at keeping my publications page up to date, so my Google Scholar profile is probably more complete! Because I’m very fortunate, my list of wonderful collaborators and students just keeps growing, so my apologies to anyone I’ve missed!

My research

My research examines how structural inequalities and features of human living environments affect behaviour which, subsequently, can affect health and longevity. As well as working on understanding the effects of adversity, I’m particularly interested in the effects of perceived risk on health behaviour. Much of my work, in collaboration with colleagues such as Prof Daniel Nettle, Dr Richard Brown, and Calvin Isch, has focussed on the Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis, and the Double Dividend of Safety. I also support colleagues in their work on topics such as how adversity affects hoarding behaviour, and the effects of food insecurity on mind and metabolism.

My background and current role

I studied Zoology with Evolutionary Psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, where I was subsequently awarded an Interdisciplinary Bridging Award to support the publication of my undergraduate research on the evolution of morning sickness.

I went on to work for the British Red Cross as an area fundraising volunteer manager. Alongside my role at the Red Cross, I started developing my experience in science communication. I completed internships at, among others, the BBC’s Specialist Factual Unit, and BBC Focus Magazine. I then worked for Newton’s Apple, a science policy charity, first as a policy and project manager, and later as their director. For over a decade after leaving my employment there, I continued as a member of the Newton’s Apple board of trustees.

From 2008, I worked at the (then) Department of Health, while completing my MSc in Evolutionary Psychology at Brunel University. I went on to study for a PhD in behavioural sciences at Newcastle University in 2011 with Professor Daniel Nettle. In 2014, following my PhD, I went on to work as a visiting postdoctoral scholar with Public Health Newcastle.

In 2015, I then joined the (then) Newcastle Institute of Health and Society, where I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Health Psychology group under Prof Vera Araujo-Soares. From 2016-2018, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Professors Daniel Nettle and Melissa Bateson at Newcastle University. In 2019, I joined Northumbria University, where I am currently Programme Director for the MSc in Health Psychology, and the Health & Wellbeing Lead for the Urban Futures Interdisciplinary Research Theme. At Northumbria, as well as being a member of the Urban Futures IDRT delivery group, I am a member of the Healthy Living Lab, the Psychobiology of Stress and Wellbeing group, the Hoarding Research Group and the Perception Evolution and Behaviour Lab (PEBL). I am an active member of both the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health and the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association. I recently became a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society and joined the Division of Health Psychology.