Fellows

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

The Institute's Fellows come from a diverse range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds across Durham University and organisations with which we collaborate. To help you identify collaborators and experts relevant to your interests, you can contact us, or view our list of fellows.

Fellowship is open to all academic and research staff of the University who subscribe to the Institute’s aims and undertake and publish research using an Institute affiliation. It is recognised that Fellows will have other affiliations, especially their home Department/School. Given the Institute’s roles in contributing to projects that often have several stakeholders, and promoting Durham’s research on health and wellbeing as a common enterprise with a major profile, it will often be the case that a Fellow’s work is associated with more than one reporting arrangement, such as both Department/School and Institute web sites.

The purpose of Fellowship is to create a research community that subscribes to the Institute's aims and has the opportunity to share in its activities, resources, support and collective reputation.

If you would like to apply to become a Fellow please complete this form.

The Institute also offers Postgraduate students the opportunity to become Postgraduate Associates (PGA) of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing. The Institute’s Postgraduate Associates scheme is open to all Postgraduates, from any department within the University, who subscribe to the aims of the Institute and undertake to acknowledge the Institute when presenting or publishing their work.

Our fellows

Fellow	Research Interest Summary (Full information on profile pages)
Dr Michelle Addison	Marginalisation, health & social inequalities, stigma, social harm, criminalisation, qualitative methods, social justice, justice-involved, intersectionality
Dr Mildred Oiza Ajebon	Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing applications for understanding a range of health outcomes among poor population groups, Social determinants of under-five mortality in Nigeria, integrating different quantitative and qualitative approaches, data sources, analytical tools and dissemination formats in unpacking the socio-spatial and environmental contexts of health inequalities in the UK and Nigeria.
Dr Nasmia Akhter	Health inequality, Nutritional assessment, Obesity, Evaluation of intervention, Bangladeshi Diaspora in the UK, Food security and livelihood
Dr Noura Al Moubayed	Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning for Healthcare, Bias and Fairness in Machine Learning, Multimodal Machine Learning, Explainable Machine Learning, Anomaly Detection, Social Robotics, Brain Computer Interfaces and Evolutionary Computation
Prof. Ben Alderson-Day	Psychological continuities between clinical and non-clinical populations who hear voices
Prof. Carrie Ambler	Biomedical and Cell Science
Dr Matthew Armstrong	Improving the quality of life of patients with chronic respiratory conditions, rehabilitation, interventions that support improving symptom management, physical activity and mental health
Dr Amir Atapour-Abarghouei	Image Processing and Computer Vision, Scene Understanding and Image Analysis, Semantic Segmentation and Object Detection, Depth Estimation and 3D Reconstruction, Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Multi-Task Learning and Neural Architecture Search, Domain Adaptation and Data Augmentation, Text Ranking and Classification, Topic Modelling and Sentiment Analysis, Robotic Navigation and Autonomy
Prof. Anthony Atkinson	Social cognitive neuroscience
Prof. Sarah Atkinson	Social science for medical humanities
Dr Charmele Ayadurai	Children of North East during pandemic, teaching and learning during Covid 19
Prof. Helen Ball	Behaviour and physiology of infant sleep
Dr Jennifer Badham	Complex systems, computational methods, models as communication tools, participatory and interdisciplinary methods
Prof. Sarah Banks	Professional ethics, community development
Prof. Barbara Bechter	Comparative Human Resource Management, European Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations, International Employment Relations, Comparative Research Methods.
Prof. Jens Beckmann	Cognitive Abilities
Prof. Nadin Beckmann	Educational Psychology
Dr Jessica Begon	How disability should be understood, whether and when disability is disadvantageous, and, when it is, what form of state assistance disabled individuals are owed
Dr Nelly Bencomo	Decision making under uncertainty, autonomous systems, runtime models, AI/ML, Software Engineering, Software Engineering for Autonomous and Self-adaptive Systems and Software Engineering for AI/ML Systems
Prof. Gillian Bentley	Developmental Effects on Reproductive Function in Migrant Bangladeshi Women
Mr Chris Bevan	Property, housing and homelessness from a legal perspective including exploring the health and mental health implications of current homelessness law and policy.
Dr Marco Bocchio	Neural mechanisms of learning and memory, Neural circuit organisation, Neural plasticity, Neuromodulators (in particular serotonin) and Psychedelics
Prof. Vikki Boliver	Educational inequalities, especially social class and ethnic inequalities of access to higher status universities, social stratification and mobility, quantitative research methods
Prof. Lynda Boothroyd	Evolutionary Social and Developmental Psychology
Dr Alessandro Borghi	Biomechanics of the craniofacial skeleton, numerical models for the preoperative planning of complex cranial and frontofacial reshaping procedures, mechanical characterisation of biological tissues, and medical device design.
Paul Braidford
Prof. Toby Breckon	Computer vision and image processing
Prof. Alex Broadbent	Philosophy of epidemiology and medicine, with an emphasis on African perspectives, and thematic interests in causal inference and prediction.
Dr Hannah Brown	Zoonotic diseases. Care, nursing, HIV/AIDS, Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, hospitals
Emeritus Prof. David Budgen	Software service-based brokering technologies
Ms Gilly Burn	Humanising Intensive and Palliative Care in India
Dr Steven Burrell	Men, Masculinities, violence, gender norms, inequalities
Dr Mike Burt	Perception of facial expressions
Prof. Camila Caiado	Bayesian approaches to modelling and uncertainty quantification
Prof. Martin Cann	Cell biology of bicarbonate and carbon dioxide
Dr Michael Cassidy	Anglo Saxon history, local natural history photography, evaluation of Science delivery in natural history museums
Dr Soazig Casteau	Visual attention and saccadic eye movements
Prof. Brian Castellani	Complexities of place and health, Communities and global civil society, Computational modelling and mixed-methods, Complexity theory and policy evaluation, Big data and digital sociology
Prof. Emma Cave	Medical law and ethics, human rights
Helen Charnley	Community Care policy and practice in the UK
Dr Atanu Chaudhuri	Evaluation of applicability of digital technologies like 3D printing and artificial intelligence in healthcare
Dr Mujeeb Chaudhry	Imperceptible Electronics, Processing Electronic Materials, Light Emitting Field Effect Transistors, Organic LASERs, Bioelectronics, Smart nose, Photodiodes and Phototransistors, Biomedical Sensors and Transducers, Self-assembly and thin film morphology
Prof. Paul Chazot	Characterisation and validation of novel drug targets
Prof. Charlotte Clarke	Executive Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health
Prof. Steven Cobb	Development of new peptide agents for the neglected tropical disease Leishmaniasis, development of new sanitation technologies
Prof. Frank Coolen	Statistics and decision support
Prof. Tahani Coolen-Maturi	Developing statistical methodology for practical problems
Prof. Judith Covey	How people perceive risks and value benefits in decisions affecting their health or safety, and evaluating methods for eliciting people's preferences and involving them in the decision making process
Robert Cramb	Quantitative measurements of physical activity can be used to help underpin health-based interventions
Dr Helen Cramman	Education evaluation, widening participation and access to STEM subjects including gender equality in STEM subjects
Prof. Richard Crisp	Social psychology, from stereotyping to social influence, from attitudes to attraction
Dr Vincent Croset	Measuring how nutrition affects gene expression in the brain, at the single-cell level
Dr Stephen Crossley	Troubled Families' and Family Hubs, the concepts of 'responsibility' and 'resilience', grassroots sport clubs and the role of sports cages in marginalised urban communities
Emeritus Prof. Sarah Curtis	Geographical dimensions of inequalities of health and health care
Dr Johny Daniel	Reading interventions, Learning difficulties, Special education, Secondary data analysis and Research methodology
Prof. Douglas Davies	Death, ritual and belief, Mormon religion
Dr Jingjing Deng	Medical Imaging and Analysis, Computer Vision, Machine Learning.
Prof. Paul Denny	The role of lipid biosynthesis and membrane trafficking in host-pathogen interactions
Dr Michelle de Gruchy	Climate, landscape, settlement and society
Dr Hayley Dewe	Hallucinations and dissociative experiences of the self and body in non-clinical adult populations, the development of the bodily self in childhood (ages 4-14 years).
Dr Katie Di Sebastiano	Integrative Metabolism, Body Composition, Cancer and Clinical Population, Clinical Exercise Physiology and Nutrition, Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs, Program Evaluation and Knowledge Translation and Mobilisation
Dr Caroline Dodd-Reynolds	Energy regulation and weight management both physical activity and dietary perspectives
Dr Nadena Doharty	Critical race feminism; racialised experiences of schooling and higher education; wellbeing at universities.
Dr Reza Drikvandi	High dimensional statistics, Longitudinal data analysis, Change point analysis for high dimensional data, Statistical modelling and inference, Biostatistics, Survival analysis
Prof. Alex Easton	Animal Models of Episodic Memory, Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning and Memory
Dr Can Eken	International commercial arbitration, Investment law, Third-party funding, Alternative dispute resolution methods, Commercial mediation and online dispute resolution.
Prof. Amanda Ellison	Neuroscientific basis of vision, neuronal disruption in migraine headache, visuomotor systems
Prof. Olga Epitropaki	Social cognition, identity and dyadic/group processes related to leadership.
Dr Elizabeth Evans
Prof. Kiran Fernandes	Operations management, innovation diffusion, complex systems
Prof. Charles Fernyhough	Cognitive-developmental approaches to psychosis and other disorders
Dr Samuel Forbes	Infant development, Early word learning, Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Prof. Andrew Gallant	Micromachining, RF MEMS, THz technology, Wafer level packaging
Dr Lian Gan	Experimental fluid mechanics: turbulence & vortex dynamics, Particle Image Velocimetry: application & technique development
Dr Alina Geampana	New and emerging health technologies, user perspectives, gender, risk, clinical trials and organisational practices, contraception, drug risk/benefit assessment, assisted reproduction, the production of evidence in the IVF sector and the commercialisation of reproductive care.
Prof. Stephen Gorard	Education and social justice, Equity and effectiveness in lifelong education, Quality of education research
Prof. Rebecca Gowland	Health and demography in the Roman world, Skeletal ageing and age as an aspect of social identity,
Prof. Leslie Graham	Strategy, change management and leadership
Prof. Darren Gröcke	Stable Isotopes, Geochemistry, Palaeoclimates, Palaeoenvironments, Palaeodiets, Palaeoceanography, Palaeobotany, Botany, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Sea level, Environment, Black Shales, Oceanic anoxic events.
Prof. John Girkin	Advanced photonics and optical technology
Prof. Simon Hackett	Interpersonal violence, child maltreatment and child welfare
Dr Peter Hamilton	Employment relations, rhetoric, language and persuasion in the workplace, equality and diversity
Prof. Kate Hampshire	Health, well-being and mobility
Prof. Mary Hanley	Social attention, cognition and neurodevelopmental disorders
Prof. Markus Hausmann	Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuropsychology of sex and gender
Mr Peter Henderson	Labour markets and the relationship between work, worklessness and health
Prof. Steve Higgins	ICT and digital technologies in schools, educational philosophy of Pragmatism and the implications for teaching and learning.
Dr Hester Hockin-Boyers	Exercise and health, Eating disorders, New Media, Digital Methods and Gender
Dr Claire Hodson	Fetal and infant growth and development, Health, wellbeing and paleopathology of fetal and infant individuals, The fetal and infant life course, and the impact of intrauterine experiences on early life, Exploring evidence for DOHaD in the archaeological record, Social and cultural treatment of the fetus and infant, Human identification in forensic contexts, particularly of infants and children, Ethical treatment of human remains in forensic and archaeological contexts and Forensic archaeological recovery of non-adults.
Prof. Claire Horwell	Volcanic health hazards
Dr Yuhan Huang	Healthcare management
Prof. Ray Hudson	Economic & social regeneration in 'old' industrial regions
Dr Fusako Innami	The body, senses, love and intimacy, affect, sleep and performative language
Dr Kimberly Jamie	Patient beliefs about health and wellbeing and the impact of this on behaviours such as exercise and medicines use
Dr Alison Jobe	Adult Deafness, and Identity
Dr David Johnson	Entrepreneurship, Academic Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, University-centred entrepreneurial ecosystems, Science-based business, Life science commercialisation, Business models in high-technology sectors.
Prof. Karen Johnson	Passive treatment of contaminated waters and soils
Dr Laura Johnston	En'light'en project
Karen Jones	RCTs and Quantitative Research methods
Dr Rahele Kafieh	Artificial intelligence in medical image and signal processing
Dr Iakowos Karakesisoglou	Cytoskeleton Linker Proteins, Nuclear Envelope Structure and Function, Premature and Physiological Ageing, Laminopathies, Tissue and Animal Morphogenesis
Prof. Ritu Kataky	Mono and bilayer modified electrodes and interactions of hard and soft nanoparticles with lipid layers - toxicity and drug delivery. Research on biocompatible, flexible redox pseudo capacitors devices - detecting and combating bacteria in biofilms.
Prof. Bob Kentridge	How objects and events are represented in the brain
Dr Ehsan Kharati	Public health and social care including design and analysis of clinical trials
Dr Matthew O. Kitching	Biological principles in synthetic chemistry to achieve temporal and spatial patterning of reactivity and materials
Dr Alison Lane	Neural mechanisms of visual attention and perception
Prof. Effie Lai-Chong Law	Usability and user Experience, Trustworthy autonomous systems (Conversational agents), Mixed reality
Prof. Colin Lever	Memory and anxiety in animals and humans in youth and age
Dr Stephanie Lichtenfeld	Emotion, Emotion Regulation, Motivation, Elementary School Students Wellbeing, Forgiveness
Dr Jane Lidstone	Cognitive development and mental health in autism spectrum disorder
Dr Dafni Lima	Family Law, Assisted Reproduction, Comparative Law, Criminal Law
Prof. Steve Lindsay	Malaria vector control, Housing and malaria, Integrated vector control, Vector ecology and behaviour, Ecology of infectious diseases, Study design of field trials
Dr Iain Lindsey	Health, wellbeing and social change through engaging young people in sport and physical activity programme
Dr Anna Llewellyn	Examining discourses of childhood and youth within society and culture and equality, diversity and inclusion.
Dr Kaspar Ludvigsen	Medical Devices, Liability, Responsibility, Philosophy of Medicine, Medical Methodology, Human Rights Law, Medical Law.
Dr Keren Maclennan	Autism, Sensory processing, Neurodiversity, Anxiety, Mental health and Participatory research
Prof. Jane Macnaughton	Literature and medicine, philosophy and history of medicine
Dr Lindsay Macnaughton	Body composition and athlete wellbeing Improving sport nutrition practice Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) as a tool to measure recovery from Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)
Prof. Holger Maehle	History of medicine and the life sciences
Dr Roslyn Malcolm	Autism spectrum conditions, hormonal models of health and ill-health, perinatal health, kinship, care, animal assisted therapies, social dimensions of biomedicine.
Dr Angela Marques-Filipe	Global histories and social dimensions of psychiatric diagnosis, mental health, and child development and neurodisability, translation and (co)production of knowledge in biomedical research and healthcare.
Dr Haemy Lee Masson	Affect Computing, Autism, EEG, Machine Learning, Mental Health, Social Neuroscience, Social Touch and fMRI
Dr Anna Matejko	Mathematical cognition, numeracy, fMRI, arithmetic, reading, dyscalculia, dyslexia, working memory, intervention and educational neuroscience.
Kulwinder Maude	Key issues in teaching and pedagogy of primary English, with a special interest in English as an additional Language, experiences of beginning teacher educators in the academy.
Dr Laura Mazzoli Smith	Narrative-based learning in healthcare education, evaluation in healthcare implementation and education, patient/citizen voice in healthcare, impact of poverty on health and wellbeing
Prof. Anthony McGregor	Animal learning and cognition
Dr Jonathon McPhetres	Science communication, Religion, Emotion, Psychophysiology, Systems Biology, Proteomics, Pseudoscience and misinformation
Mrs Victoria Menzies	Wellbeing related to education, research synthesis, evaluation of educational interventions and peer monitoring
Prof. Amir Michael	Audit Data Analytics, Accounting Education, Auditing & Assurance Services, Corporate Governance, Financial Reporting and Voluntary Disclosures
Prof. Dorothy Monekosso	Sensor data analysis, applications of machine learning, assistive and rehabilitation technologies, clinical decision support, smart homes and smart cities to support independent living
Dr Victoria Money	X-ray crystallography, viral encoded proteins from highly infectious human and animal pathogens.
Prof. Tiago Moreira	Formal and 'informal' processes of health technology
Prof. Stephen Mumford	Public health and complexity. Social determinants of health. Intersection of health and metaphysics.
Dr Alice Maria Han Yuong Nah	The security, protection and wellbeing of activists at risk and migration and asylum in Asia
Dr Thuy-vy Nguyen	Solitude, self-regulation, motivation and well-being
Dr Kate O'Brien	Inequalities and crime: health consequences of austerity policies on Britain's low income populations
Dr Emmanuel Ogundimu	Missing data methodology, Models for rare events.
Prof. Joe Painter	Prosaic geographies of the state
Prof. Shaun Pattinson	Medical law and ethics
Prof. Cassandra Phoenix	Ageing and Active Mobilities, Everyday Ageism, Weather and Wellbeing, Coastal Blue Space, Health and Wellbeing
Prof. Emke Pohl	Unravelling the three-dimensional structures of proteins associated with virulence and disease
Prof. Tessa Pollard	Evolutionary perspectives on 'western' diseases
Dr Stacey Pope	Sport and physical activity - how social determinants such as gender and social class impact upon physical activity and health
Dr Emma Poulton	Antisemitism
Dr Xiaofei Qi	Early childhood education and care (ECEC), Parenting, Child ability assessment: verbal and non-verbal, Digital Home Learning Environment (HLE), Educational assessment, Entrance test development and Computational modelling in second language acquisition (SLA).
Prof. Roy Quinlan	Animal cell biology, cataract and amyloidosis, motor neurone disease, protein chaperones, the cytoskeleton and the eye lens and the aging process
Prof. Habib Rahman	Climate Change, Natural Disasters, Environment, Political Economy
Prof. Nadja Reissland	Early mother-infant interaction
Prof. Paolo Remagnino	Image and Video Analysis, Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Ambient assisted living and Medical imaging
Prof. Deborah Riby	Social perception, social cognition in neurodevelopmental disorders
Prof. Emeritus Charlotte Roberts	Bioarchaeological approaches to the history of disease and medicine
Dr Steve Robertson	Soil chemistry and the interactions between soil organic matter, contaminants, soil biota
Prof. Martin Roderick	Risk, pain and injury in physical activity
Prof. Andrew Russell	Applied anthropology and development
Prof. David Sanderson	psychological basis of learning and memory and how these processes are achieved in the brain
Prof. Corinne Saunders	History of ideas and history of women and women's writing
Dr Gary Sharples	Molecular mechanisms of genetic recombination
Dr Manish Shukla	Agri/Food Value Chains, Sustainable Supply Chains
Prof. Hubert P. H. Shum	Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Machine Learning, Biomedical Engineering
Prof. Nadia Siddiqui	Explore educational programmes that can break the cycle of poverty and its impact on young people’s lives
Prof. Bob Simpson	Comparative bioethics
Dr Akansha Singh	Mathematical Demography, Public Health Statistics, Social Statistics, Survey and RCT Data Analysis
Dr Renu Singh	Public Policy and Administration, Public Health, Sustainability, Comparative Public Policy, Global Governance
Prof Fuschia Sirois	Emotion regulation, Positive psychology, esp. self-compassion and gratitude, Health behaviours, Personality and health-related outcomes, Loneliness and meaningful relationships, Time perspective and temporal thinking, Adjustment to chronic health conditions, Counterfactual thinking.
Prof. Dan Smith	Understanding the mechanisms which determine which sensations enter our awareness
Dr Benedict Smith	Moral theory and topics in philosophy of mind and epistemology
Prof. Roger Smith	Childhood, youth justice, participatory methods, social work and power
Dr Rachel Staddon	Use of educational technology, particularly in flipped learning; Age inclusivity; Reduction of maths anxiety; The role of compassion in developing wellbeing.
Prof. Jonathan Steed	Anion binding and sensing, supramolecular gels and crystalline solids including pharmaceuticals and hydrates
Prof. Patrick Steel	Development and applications of new methods for organic synthesis, design and synthesis of small molecule probes and modulators of biological processes, applications in applied synthetic biology
Dr Anna Stenning	How neurological/developmental differences and mental health conditions are constructed by scientists, and how they are experienced by individuals
Prof. Carolyn Summerbell	Prevention of obesity in children and adults
Dr Sinclair Sutherland	Labour markets and the relationships between work, worklessness and health
Dr Peter Swift	Terahertz radiation application to engineering and biological applications
Prof. Jamie Tehrani	Cultural evolution, phylogenetic analysis of culture
Prof. Lore Thaler	Human echolocation, visual perception, auditory perception, blindness, planning and control of movements, psychophysics, kinematics, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Dr Marlee Tichenor	The politics of quantified data in the context of health interventions.
Dr Jill Tidmarsh	Interdisciplinary and interprofessional working and learning in social care - children and families
Prof. Carole Torgerson	Experimental Design, Research Synthesis
Prof. Graham Towl	Children and young people and crime
Dr Leanne Trick	Mental health comorbidities in people with long term conditions
Prof. Jonathan Tummons	Medical education
Prof. Peter Tymms	Monitoring, assessment, performance indicators, ADHD, reading and research methodology in Education
Dr Kathleen Vancleef	Translational neuropyschology research in visual perception
Dr Julie Van de Vyver	Prosocial behaviour, Pro-environmental behaviour, Prejudice, Good relations and social cohesion, Social identity and intragroup and intergroup relations, Arts engagement, Moral emotions, Behaviour change
Prof. Milica Vasiljevic	Labelling and advertising affect people’s decisions to eat (un)healthily, drink alcohol, and/or smoke tobacco, evaluating interventions to increase societal equality and egalitarianism
Dr Sarah A Walker	Emotions, emotion regulation and individual differences associated with why and how people try to regulate the emotions of others, and the subsequent impact on interpersonal relationships and wellbeing
Prof. Tammi Walker	Women in contact with the criminal justice system, Prisoner self-harm and suicide, Physical health inequalities and serious mental illness, Addressing sexual violence at universities and Addictions and offender health
Prof. Nicole Westmarland	Gender and crime, particularly: rape and sexual abuse
Ricky Whitefield	Ecology, Memory, and British Storytelling, researching the impact of experiences of ambiguity, the unknown, hiddenness, fear and looking at wellbeing within ecology and death.
Prof. Tom Widger	Anthropology of suicide and self-harm, medical philanthropy and pesticides and global health
Dr Sarah Wieten	The intersection of ethics and epistemology in the health sciences.
Dr Jonathan Wistow	Health inequalities, public health, governance, local government
Prof. Angela Woods	Critical Medical Humanities, Voice-Hearing - Phenomenology, Voice-Hearing - Hermeneutics, Narrative approaches to mental health, Interdisciplinary Research & Practice
Dr Keming Yang	Economic sociology and entrepreneurship, China, statistical methods in social research, social gerontology, social mechanisms and dynamics
Dr Jacqueline Jing You	Organizational Resilience, Organizational Disruption, Business Ecosystems, Strategy, Inter-organizational Relationships, Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Innovation
Dr Mohaddeseh Ziyachi	Immigration and mental health