Lucy Yardley

University of Bristol and University of Southampton

Lucy Yardley is Professor of Health Psychology at University of Bristol and University of Southampton, and an NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Senior Investigator. She has a longstanding interest in empowering patients and people in the community to take control over their illness and treatment. Currently her main research focus is on using the internet to support self-management of health. Her current programme of research addresses key questions such as how to maximise engagement with digital interventions and how best to integrate digital support for self-management of health with existing health promotion and healthcare services. She is addressing these questions through the development and evaluation of numerous web-based healthcare interventions. These include interventions to support weight management, physical activity, reduction of infection transmission and antibiotic over-use, and self-management of numerous long-term health conditions (including cancer, hypertension, diabetes, back pain, asthma, cognitive decline and many other health problems).

 Robert West

University College London

Robert West is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group. Professor West advises Public Health England and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction. He has published more than 700 academic works. Professor West's research includes population studies of smoking and smoking cessation patterns, evaluations of national tobacco control policies, development and evaluation of smoking cessation interventions, and development and testing of behaviour change theories. He has written several books, including Theory of Addiction, Models of Addiction, and The SmokeFree Formula. See www.rjwest.co.uk.

 Russ Jago

University of Bristol

Russ Jago is Professor of Paediatric Physical Activity and Public Health at the University of Bristol where he leads the Centre for Exercise, Nutrition & Health Sciences. Prof Jago’s research focusses on understanding the factors that are associated with why children and young people are active and then using that information to design and evaluate strategies to increase children’s physical activity at the population level. He has extensive experience of designing and evaluating public health interventions with a focus on collaborating with stakeholders including local government, charities and other third sector agencies to create innovative approaches to complex challenges.

view Russ' profile on www.bristol.ac.uk

 David Gunnell

University of Bristol

David Gunnell FMedSci FPH is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Bristol’s Department of Population Health Sciences and Hon Consultant in Public Health. He is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group for England and advises WHO on their suicide prevention work.

He has led a number of National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and MRC funded research studies and research programmes on the causes and prevention of suicide and self-harm, focusing on suicide methods, socioeconomic influences on suicide and factors influencing trends in suicide.

 Cathy Creswell

University of Reading

Cathy Creswell is Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology at the University of Reading, an Honorary Consultant Clinical  Psychologist and Joint Director of the University of Reading Anxiety and Depression in Young people (AnDY) research unit. She was awarded the British Psychological Society May Davidson award for outstanding contribution to Clinical Psychology within 10 years of qualifying and was the first clinical psychologist to be awarded an NIHR Research Professorship (2014-2019). Cathy has particular research and clinical interests in the development and treatment of anxiety disorders in children and young people, and applies experimental, longitudinal, and clinical trial methodologies with children, in both community (including school) and clinical settings, with the ultimate aim of improving access and outcomes for children with these common conditions. In addition to academic publications, she has co-written self-help books for parents, including 'Overcoming your child's fears and worries' (Little Brown), and a recent practice guide for clinicians, ‘Parent-Led CBT for Child Anxiety: Helping Parents Help Their Kids’ (Guilford Press).

 Matt Field

University of Sheffield

Matt is Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. He received his PhD from the University of Sussex in 2001, worked at the Universities of Southampton and Liverpool before joining the University of Sheffield in 2018. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, chapters and books on a number of topics related to alcohol use disorders and other addictions, with a particular focus on the determinants and consequences of alcohol problems and translational research to develop novel treatments. He has received research funding from MRC, ESRC, Wellcome and Alcohol Research UK. He serves on the editorial boards of Addiction, the British Journal of Clinical Psychology, and Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

 Matt Hickman

University of Bristol

Matt Hickman is Head of Population Health Sciences at Bristol Medical School, Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology at Bristol, NIHR Senior Investigator, and Honorary Public Health Consultant at Bristol City Council and Public Health England. He is the director of National Institute Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit on Evaluation of Interventions, and member of NIHR School of Public Health Research.  He is deputy regional editor of Addiction, and a member of the Scientific Committee of European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), WHO Technical Advisory Group on alcohol and drug epidemiology, and International Network on Hepatitis Care for Substance Users (INHSU).

 James White

Cardiff University

James White is the Deputy Director of Population Health Trials in the Centre for Trials Research, a Senior Lecturer based at DECIPHer (Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Public Health Interventions) a UK CRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence in Cardiff University, UK. James funded research has led to the design and evaluation of interventions to prevent: illicit drug use, obesity, and teenage pregnancy; and has used record-linked ‘big data’ studies to evaluate the health impacts of UK government policy. James currently leads a multi-centre randomised control trial to evaluate FRANK friends, a school-based peer-led drug prevention intervention. James is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol.