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.

So, what is a Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing and what do we ask of you?

Fellows will be active members of the WRIHW community, sharing our vision to develop and promote health and wellbeing research at Durham University and beyond.

We ask

That your research and related activity is connected to or aligned with Health and Wellbeing, helping to define Health@Durham's research profile.
That you participate in the life of the WRIHW in the ways listed below, and also potentially in proposing and coordinating activities that may benefit you, your research group, or the wider WRIHW Community.
That you agree to being an ambassador for WRIHW in University departments and networks: responding to requests for information and championing the work of the WRIHW and Health@Durham as broadly as possible.

As a WRIWH Fellow, we strongly encourage you to engage with our network of researchers across all career stages through a diverse range of activities, including:

Research Seminars and Workshops: Participate in research seminars, workshops and public events, offered in person and online. We can also arrange an event to showcase your own work.
Networking Events: Connect with peers and colleagues in a relaxed setting over coffee every term. Meet new people and make connections.
Research Collaboration: Join fellow researchers to share and explore innovative ideas in health and wellbeing research. We facilitate research conversations and brainstorming events across the health and wellbeing landscape and are always open to requests for new conversations.
Respond to requests to collaborate with our partners and other opportunities where these align with your expertise, perhaps leading on evaluations, developing joint research grant applications, CPD and fostering impact activities.
Ambassadorship: Act as an advocate for WRIHW within your networks, promoting our initiatives and the broader work of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing.
Subscribe to our newsletter to keep abreast of WRIHW activity and access our online resources
Building a community: Following the challenges in the world over the past few years we understand how the world has changed, and how working life and academia has changed. We understand that the ways we work have changed, but not always for the better. We want to rebuild our community, bring people back together across all faculties and departments and facilitate interdisciplinary research. We will work hard to ensure this happens however we need your help and engagement to do this.
- Keep us up to date with your research interests and research
- Send us your publications and successes to promote
- Be proactive in keeping us informed. This could be by responding to our calls for information for our annual reports, or by dropping us an email to let us know of events or successes you may have.
- Encourage your ECR colleagues to engage with the ECR activities of the Institute where appropriate.

As an Institute, we are committed to supporting our Fellows’ research endeavours, and by keeping us informed this offering can be maximised:

Research Showcase Opportunities: Leverage the WRIHW as a platform to promote and develop your research within the University, local communities and organisations, nationally and internationally.
Digital Profiling Opportunities: Feature your research across the WRIHW website and Twitter page, as well as at health-focused events within the University and the wider regional community.
Professional Designation: You are invited to use the formal title of Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing in your professional profile, CV and email signature.
Support and Advice Services: Gain access to our Directorate and Admin support for dedicated advice.
Exclusive Events: Enjoy invitations to Fellows-only events designed to foster deep connections and collaborative opportunities within our community.

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	Health and social inequalities, stigma, marginalisation, and criminalisation.
Dr Jennifer Airlie	Physical activity and sedentary behaviour interventions, physical activity and sedentary behaviour measurement (with a particular focus on accelerometers) and applied health and social care research.
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
Dr Matthew Armstrong	Improving the quality of life of patients with chronic respiratory conditions, rehabilitation, interventions that support improving symptom management, physical activity, digital health interventions, Inequalities in chronic disease and mental health
Professor Farshad Arvin	Swarm Robotics, Bio-inspired Swarms, Multi-agent Systems and Bio-hybrid Systems
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
Dr Charmele Ayadurai	Children of North East during pandemic, teaching and learning during Covid 19
Prof. Helen Ball	Parent-infant sleep, infant sleep safety, SIDS and SUDI, infant feeding and sleeping
Dr Jennifer Badham	Complex systems, computational methods, models as communication tools, participatory and interdisciplinary methods
Prof. Sarah Banks	Participatory action research for social justice; community development; social work ethics; ethics in participatory research
Prof. Barbara Bechter	Comparative Human Resource Management, European Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations, International Employment Relations, Comparative Research Methods.
Prof. Nadin Beckmann	Educational Psychology, Personality and Individual Differences, Personality Dynamics.
Dr Jessica Begon	Disability, social justice, paternalism, epistemic injustice.
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.
Dr Hannah Brown	Zoonotic diseases. Care, nursing, HIV/AIDS, Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, hospitals
Emeritus Prof. David Budgen	Information sharing and management for health informatics; historical use of data engineering for healthcare.
Prof. Camila Caiado	Bayesian approaches to modelling and uncertainty quantification
Prof. Martin Cann	Cell biology of bicarbonate and carbon dioxide
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, especially patient choice and emerging biotechnologies
Dr Atanu Chaudhuri	Evaluation of applicability of digital technologies like 3D printing and artificial intelligence in healthcare
Prof. Paul Chazot	Characterisation and validation of novel drug targets
Prof. Charlotte Clarke	Executive Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health
Prof. Frank Coolen	Statistics and decision support, reproducibility of statistical inferences.
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
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, Mental Health, Secondary data analysis and Research methodology
Prof. Douglas Davies	Death, ritual and belief, Mormon religion
Prof. Paul Denny	The role of lipid biosynthesis and membrane trafficking in host-pathogen interactions
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 Reza Drikvandi	High dimensional statistics, Longitudinal data analysis, Change point analysis for high dimensional data, Statistical modelling and inference, Biostatistics, Survival analysis
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
Dr Elizabeth Evans	In children and adults: eating behaviours, eating & weight disorders, body image, intervention design & evaluation, behaviour change, weight stigma.
Prof. Charles Fernyhough	Lived-experience-led research; cognitive-developmental approaches to psychosis and other disorders
Dr Samuel Forbes	Infant development, Early word learning, Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Dr Alina Geampana	Health technology, Gender and health, Reproductive health, Datafication, Risk and uncertainty
Prof. Stephen Gorard	Education and social justice, Equity and effectiveness in lifelong education, Quality of education research
Dr Suncica Hadzidedic	Particular interests in applications of Computer Science methods in addressing open problems/questions related to: mental health, wellbeing, cancer, affect, bias and fairness, spirituality (meditation, self-awareness), fashion.
Prof. Peter Hamilton	Employment relations, rhetoric, language and persuasion in the workplace, equality and diversity
Prof. Kate Hampshire	Medical anthropology, with a geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include medicines and other therapeutic technologies, community health workers, health equity.
Prof. Markus Hausmann	Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuropsychology, Sex and gender in neuroscience of mental health
Dr Mark Hollett	Addiction, Recovery, Social Justice, and Rehabilitation. Exercise Interventions for Vulnerable Populations and the Social and Psychological Impacts of Sport and Physical Activity. Physical Activity Promotion in Social Work, and Homelessness and Health.
Prof. Claire Horwell	The health hazards and impacts of air pollution, and community protection
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	Health in everyday life; the body; fatness; women's health; health and work; materiality and 'stuff'
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.
Dr Rahele Kafieh	Biomedical data processing
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	Neurobiological mechanisms underlying memory and anxiety in animals and humans in youth and age. Factors in Healthy Ageing, including sleep. Diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Jane Lidstone	Cognitive development and mental health in autism spectrum disorder
Dr Dafni Lima	Family Law, Assisted Reproduction, Comparative Law, Criminal Law
Dr Iain Lindsey	Policies for sport and physical activity, and intended contributions to health, wellbeing and social change
Dr Anna Llewellyn	Equality, diversity and inclusion, with particular attention to gender and sexualities
Dr Kaspar Ludvigsen	Medical Devices, Cybersecurity and Law, AI and Medicine.
Prof. Jane Macnaughton	Research Culture, Long COVID, South African Medical Missions - historical project
Prof. Holger Maehle	History of medicine and the life sciences, history of psychoanalysis.
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 ethnography and social history of psychiatric diagnosis, intervention, and contested conditions;Children, youth, families, and social inequalities; Politics and ethics of knowledge (co)production; Translational models and concepts of adversity, vulnerability, and wellbeing; Climate emotions, activisms, and just futures.
Dr Haemy Lee Masson	Social cognitive neuroscience, social brain, social cognition, autism, mental health.
Dr Anna Matejko	Brain bases of learning difficulties (dyslexia and dyscalculia), and how we can improve learning outcomes for these children
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, qualitative and participatory research on mental health and well-being.
Mrs Victoria Menzies	Evaluation of educational programmes and interventions, wellbeing in education, evaluation methodologies.
Prof. Tiago Moreira	Formal and 'informal' processes of health technology
Dr Thuy-vy Nguyen	Solitude, emotion regulation, stress regulation, loneliness, social isolation.
Dr Emmanuel Ogundimu	Machine Learning in Health Research, Clinical Trials, Missing Data methodology, Models for Rare Events, Biostatistics
Prof. Shaun Pattinson	Medical law and ethics, genetic and reproductive technologies
Prof. Tessa Pollard	Critical and anthropological perspectives on public health interventions, especially physical activity interventions; everyday mobilities/active travel; social prescribing
Dr Brian Powers	Moral Injury
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. 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
Dr Lena Riabinina	Black soldier flies, mosquitoes, Drosophila, bumblebees, development of genetic tools, sensory neuroscience, neuroethology, olfaction and sensory ecology
Emeritus Prof. Andrew Russell	Public Health Anthropology (including tobacco control); Global and Planetary Health (including green travel); Participatory Approaches
Prof. David Sanderson	psychological basis of learning and memory and how these processes are achieved in the brain
Prof. Hubert P. H. Shum	Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Machine Learning and Biomedical Engineering
Prof. Nadia Siddiqui	Explore educational programmes that can break the cycle of poverty and its impact on young people’s lives
Dr Akansha Singh	Mathematical Demography, Public Health Statistics, Social Statistics, Health Inequalities, Survey and RCT Data Analysis
Dr Renu Singh	Public Policy and Administration, Public Health, Sustainability, Comparative Public Policy, Global Governance
Prof. Dan Smith	The cognitive neuropsychology of eye-movements, visuospatial attention and working memory, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Charlotte Spink	Removing barriers to engagement with museums, including the blind and partially sighted community, refugees, people living with dementia, vulnerable adults, lifelong learners (Women’s Institute, U3A).
Prof. Jonathan Steed	Anion binding and sensing, supramolecular gels and crystalline solids including pharmaceuticals and hydrates
Prof. Mark Stoutenberg	Public health and implementation science; global health; clinic-community linkages with a primary focus is on integrating physical into health settings.
Prof. Carolyn Summerbell	Prevention of obesity in children and adults
Prof. Lore Thaler	Sensory Neuroplasticity, blindness, Human echolocation, visual perception, auditory perception, planning and control of movement, psychophysics, kinematics, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Dr Leanne Trick	mental health, addiction, long term conditions, intersection of mental and physical health, comorbidity, depression, anxiety, emotion, stress
Prof. Jonathan Tummons	Medical education; science and technology studies; sociomaterial accounts of learning through practice; professional/occupational expertise and competence; assessment, accreditation and certification
Dr Kathleen Vancleef	Translational neuropyschology research in visual perception
Prof. Milica Vasiljevic	Behaviour and behaviour change interventions/policies with a particular interest in evaluating the impact of labelling and advertising on people’s decisions to eat (un)healthily, drink alcohol, and/or smoke tobacco. Evaluating interventions to increase societal equality and egalitarianism. Examining the public support for different population-level policies including those at the intersection of health and climate change.
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	The interface between social and personal wellbeing and moral injury, indifference, and the experience of moral, social, physical, ethical fatigue/impasse
Dr Sarah Wieten	The intersection of ethics and epistemology in the health sciences.
Dr Jonathan Wistow	Health inequalities, public health, governance, local government
Dr Keming Yang	Economic sociology and entrepreneurship, China, statistical methods in social research, social gerontology, social mechanisms and dynamics
Dr Mohaddeseh Ziyachi	Immigration and mental health