People

Find out more about the º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ academics and support staff impacting on the research, enterprise and teaching activity taking place at the National Rehabilitation Centre.

Dr Saul Albert

Dr Saul Albert

Lecturer in Social Sciences (Social Psychology)

Dr Albert's research studies the technical structure of human social interaction and uses detailed analysis of how we do things together to design better technology for health and social care.

Jamie Barker

Dr Jamie Barker

Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology

Dr Jamie Barker is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the British Psychological Society with over 20 years of experience working in business, professional sport and the military.

Dr Richard Blagrove

Dr Richard Blagrove

Lecturer in Physiology

Dr Richard Blagrove is an Exercise Physiologist and Accredited Strength & Conditioning Coach with 15 years of experience supporting a wide variety of athletes across the performance spectrum.

Dr Karen Blay

Dr Karen Blay

Senior Lecturer in Digital Construction and Quantity Surveying

Dr Blay specialises in Digital Inclusion and Resilience, and AI for asset monitoring and predictive maintenance. She is a member of the UK NHS Digital Estate Group.

Dr Glen Blenkinsop

Dr Glen Blenkinsop

Lecturer in Motor Control & Biomechanics of Sport

Dr Glen Blenkinsop's research focuses on understanding technique and limits of performance in sporting activities.

Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell

Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell

Senior Lecturer in Human Biology

Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell's research interests are in exercise and bone health, particularly in the prevention of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and stress fractures.

Dr Capel is a bioengineer whose research focuses on the development of bioengineered models of the musculoskeletal system during health, disease and injury.

Professor Wen-Hua Chen

Professor Wen-Hua Chen

Professor in Autonomous Vehicles

Prof Chen currently holds EPSRC Established Career Fellowship with over 20 years’ experience in developing technologies for high levels of automation with potential in social and health care.

Dr Karen Coopman

Professor Karen Coopman

Professor of Biological Engineering

Karen Coopman is the Director of the EPSRC/MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine and Chair of ESACT-UK with over 10 years experience working in regenerative medicine.

Dr Georgina Cosma

Dr Georgina Cosma

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor)

Dr Georgina Cosma has expertise in Data Science and AI. Her research focus is on multi-modal information retrieval and classification, predictive modelling in healthcare, and ethical AI.

Dr Katie Coveney

Dr Catherine Coveney

Senior lecturer in Sociology

Dr Coveney is a medical sociologist researching how people with complex chronic health issues interact with (medical) technologies and other networks of care to ‘live well’ with disability.

Dr Owen Davies

Dr Owen Davies

Senior Lecturer in Regenerative Biomedicine

Dr Davies specialises in musculoskeletal biology, focusing on the manufacture and application of cell-derived nanoparticles for the treatment of tissue injuries and for targeted drug delivery.

Dr Ishara Dharmasena

Dr Ishara Dharmasena

Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow

Dr Ishara develops smart textiles to autonomously sense human movements for telerehabilitation applications, with over 10 years of experience in nanotechnology and wearable electronics areas.

Dr Dugdale specialises in skeletal muscle biology. Her research focuses on understanding muscle disease and the role regeneration plays in exacerbating or even causing symptoms.

Dr Dale Esliger

Dr Dale Esliger

Reader in Digital Health

Dr Dale Esliger focuses on the enhancement of accelerometric profiling of physical activity to advance understanding of the interplay between physical activity, sedentary behavior, and health.

Dr Jon Farmer is an expert in the design and development of human surrogate devices for the investigation of traumatic brain injuries and advancement of injury prevention.

Dr Richard Ferguson

Dr Richard Ferguson

Reader in Human and Exercise Physiology

Dr Ferguson's work focuses on improving human performance and health through exercise training and novel interventions; particularly in skeletal muscle and peripheral vascular adaptations.

Prof Jonathan Folland

Professor Jonathan Folland

Professor of Neuromuscular Performance

Prof Folland focuses on neuromuscular function, training and performance - including underpinning anatomy, physiology and mechanics - and their application to sport, health and rehabilitation.

Dr Daniel Fong

Dr Daniel Fong

Reader in Sports Medicine and Biomechanics

Dr Daniel Fong has a PhD in Orthopaedics and Traumatology and experience in clinical research, mainly on ankle and knee ligamentous injury mechanism, prevention and rehabilitation.

Dr Kajal Gokal

Dr Kajal Gokal

Senior Research Associate (Snacktivity)

Dr Gokal’s research explores health-related behaviour change interventions particularly for the prevention and management of cancer.

Dr Michael J. Grey

Dr Michael J. Grey

Reader in Rehabilitation Neuroscience

Dr Grey investigates how neuroplasticity can be harnessed following brain injury to inform neurorehabilitation practise. He also has an interest in sport-related mild traumatic brain injury.

Dr Magnus Hamann

Dr Magnus Hamann

University Teacher

Dr Hamann is interested in rehabilitation and care related to brain injuries and aging. His research focuses on how different aspects of care and recovery are sociomedical.

Dr Hancox explores motivation and adherence with a focus on the role of significant others (exercise instructors, health professionals, caregivers) in supporting those they interact with.

Dr Jiang’s main research interests focus on: shared-control (i.e. Human-machine interactions), the development of Advanced Driver Assistant Systems, and autonomous vehicles.

Sotiris Korossis

Professor Sotiris Korossis

Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Bioartificial Organs

Dr Christof Leicht

Dr Christof Leicht

Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology

Dr Leicht’s research focuses on tailoring exercise prescription to populations with disability, and investigating alternatives to exercise (e.g., heat, limb occlusion) to benefit their health.

Prof Mark Lewis

Professor Mark Lewis

Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology

Prof Lewis is a cell and molecular biologist with over 25 years of experience developing in vitro 3D models of functional bioengineered musculoskeletal tissues.

Dr Baihua Li

Professor Baihua Li

Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning

Prof Baihua Li has research expertise in novel AI theory and innovation in the fields of human motion analysis, healthcare, autonomous systems, sports science and computer-aided diagnosis.

Lynsey Speirs

Doctoral Researcher

Dr Claire Madigan is a behavioural scientist whose research focuses on weight management and Prehabilitation to improve health outcomes prior to surgery.

Dr Raman Maiti

Dr Raman Maiti

Lecturer in Healthcare Engineering

Dr Raman Maiti is a lecturer working on the design and development of rehabilitation devices with a focus on biomechanics and tribology.

Stuart’s research focuses on the integration of wearable technology and musculoskeletal modelling to provide estimates of post-impact loading on tissues during training and rehabilitation.

Prof Qinggang Meng

Professor Qinggang Meng

Professor of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Prof Meng’s research focuses on intelligent robotics, service and assistive robotics, AI, deep learning, trustworthy AI, computer vision, embedded intelligence and human-robot interaction.

Dr Daniel Merryweather

Dr Daniel Merryweather

Research Associate

Dr Merryweather specializes in neuromuscular tissue engineering. Part of the EU NeuCHIP project, he is developing microfabricated platforms for biological AI and neuronal computing devices.

Dr Mazher Iqbal Mohammed

Dr Mazher Iqbal Mohammed

Senior Lecturer in Digital Fabrication

Dr Mohammed has over 10 years experience in the development of medical device technology, focusing on patient specific solutions across diagnostic, prosthetic and orthotic technologies.

Dr Fehmidah Munir

Professor Fehmidah Munir

Professor of Health Psychology

Prof Munir specialises in developing and trialling sustainable return-to-work interventions, underpinned by CBT principles, goal-setting and problem solving.

Dr Roger Newport

Dr Roger Newport

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Roger Newport is a cognitive psychologist who specialises in sensorimotor processing and mental representations of the body with respect to health, wellbeing and rehabilitation.

Tom O'Brien

Dr Thomas O'Brien

Lecturer in Applied Disability and Para Sport

Dr O'Brien is a sports scientist with broad research interests in disability & para-sport including physiological & thermoregulatory responses to exercise, & optimising training & performance.

Dr Nicola Paine

Dr Nicola Paine

Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology

Dr Paine investigates the interactions between the biological mechanisms of psychological stress, physical activity and sitting time in the context of disease prevention and progression.

Simona Rasciute

Dr Simona Rasciute

Senior Lecturer in Economics

Dr Rasciute’s research focuses on analysing the relationship between health and wellbeing with economic factors as well as social and human capital by applying quantitative econometric models.

Dr Paul Roach

Dr Paul Roach

Reader in Biomaterials and Interface Science

Dr Paul Sanderson

Dr Paul Sanderson

Applied Sport & Exercise Scientist

Dr Paul Sanderson has a broad area of interest across musculoskeletal injury including injury prevention, pre-habilitation and treatment.

Dr Jakob Skarabot

Dr Jakob Å karabot

Lecturer in Neuromuscular Physiology

Dr Jakob Å karabot's research focuses on neural determinants of muscle actions, and their adaptation with ageing, musculoskeletal pathologies, and exercise.

Dr Sykora studies the role social media and online platforms can have on health outcomes and how ethical big data analytics can meaningfully inform public health and digital epidemiology.

Dr Antuela Tako

Dr Antuela Tako

Reader in Operational Research

Dr Tako is an expert in using systems thinking and simulation modelling tools to evaluate and improve the efficiency of health and social care organisations.

Dr Ian Taylor

Dr Ian Taylor

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Taylor explores motivation & adherence-related issues in rehabilitation contexts (e.g. stroke, musculoskeletal impairments), with the aim of optimising physical & psychological functioning.

Dr Lee Taylor

Dr Lee Taylor

Reader in Exercise & Environmental Physiology

Dr Taylor specialises in environmental extremes (heat, cold and hypoxia), harnessing their therapeutic potential to enhance rehabilitation or preparing elite athletes to compete in them.

Prof Vicky Tolfrey

Professor Vicky Tolfrey

Professor of Applied Disability Sport

Prof Tolfrey is a sport scientist whose research focuses on the ergonomics of wheeled mobility (physical activity to high performance sport), with expertise in Para sport physiology.

Dr Carmen Torres-Sanchez

Dr Carmen Torres-Sanchez

Reader in Multifunctional Materials Manufacturing

Dr Torres is the lead of the Multifunctional Materials Manufacturing Lab and works at the interface with design, mechanical and bio-engineering, materials and physical, in-silico validation.

Prof Patrick Wheeler

Professor Patrick Wheeler

Honorary Clinical Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine

Professor Wheeler's research focuses on the medical management of musculoskeletal disease, particularly tendinopathy.

Dr Thom Wilcockson

Dr Thom Wilcockson

Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Wilcockson is a cognitive neuropsychologist whose research focuses on utilising novel eye tracking software and hardware approaches to aid in patient diagnosis.

Prof Massimiliano Zecca

Professor Massimiliano Zecca

Professor of Healthcare Technology

Prof Zecca's research focuses on the use of robotic services for preventative care amongst older adults at risk of frailty.

Dr Diwei Zhou

Dr Diwei Zhou

Senior Lecturer in Statistics

Dr Diwei Zhou has expertise in brain and muscle Diffusion MRI data analysis. Her research focus is on statistical modelling, bayesian statistics, shape analysis and uncertainty quantification.