Meet our professors

Science

• Professor Kim A. Bard

  Professor of Comparative Developmental Psychology

  I come from America where I studied developmental psychology in human and nonhuman primates, obtained my PhD, and held numerous grants and post-doctoral positions. I conduct empirical studies of young hominoids with an eye to clarifying universal and species-specific characteristics of great apes and of humans.

  My present interests are in the influence of early socio-emotional variables on social cognition of apes and humans across different environmental conditions (i.e. across cultures). I have documented similarities between chimpanzees and humans in the development of primary intersubjectivity (e.g.: neonatal imitation, mutual gaze, socio-emotional communicative expressiveness); of early social cognition (e.g., social referencing, joint attention, cooperation), and of self-recognition. My current Leverhulme Trust grant is to document naturally occurring social cognition in one-year-old human and chimpanzee infants living in diverse eco-cultures.

• Professor Dave Brown

  School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

  I am Professor of Pharmacy Practice and a practising pharmacist. I enjoy teaching pharmacokinetics, drug safety and clinical pharmacy on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and am Head of the School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice Division. My research interests cover the supply of medicines information in all formats, inter-professional health services research, drug safety and pharmacovigilance. I supervise a number of PhD and Professional Doctorate students in these areas and am an Honorary Research Fellow of the Drug Safety Research Unit.

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  Professor Dariusz C. Górecki MD, PhD

  Professor of Molecular Medicine

  Director of Research

  I come from Poland where I qualified in medicine and obtained a PhD. My research interests span several areas within molecular medicine including gene regulation and expression in dystrophic disorders, the role of receptors in neurological diseases, blood-brain barrier function and drug and gene targeting. Our current research is supported by the EU Interreg grant TC2N, the Foundation for Polish Science and the Duchenne Parents Project (NL). I am the Director of Research (School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences) and have chaired the Science Faculty Research Degrees Committee. I had been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship (2011, Harvard Medical School) and previously held a Welcome European Fellowship, University of Cambridge Medical School and the Wellcome Research Career Development Fellowship at the Royal Free and University College Medical School, London.

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  Professor Matthew Guille

  Professor of Developmental Genetics

  I was born in Guernsey but studied Biochemistry in London for my BSc, PhD and post-docs. My research interest is gene regulation in embryos and I use the frog model to study epigenetic regulation and post-translational modification of gene controlling proteins in early development. I run the European Xenopus Resource Centre, which is the largest frog facility in the world. We collaborate with more than 100 research groups to develop genetically altered embryos that allow us to understand the basic principles of life, which underpin medical advances. My more applied research involves working with medicinal chemists to use the frog model to understand how new therapeutic compounds work and to model human genetic diseases. My research is funded by the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, EU and HEIF. Outside the University I sit on the scientific oversight committee of the National Xenopus Resource, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA and advise a number of public and charitable bodies on frog welfare.

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  Professor Paul Hayes

  Dean of Science Faculty

  I am a microbial ecologist with interests in primary production in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. My initial focus was to generate an understanding of the molecular structure of gas vesicles, the mechanisms that allow their accumulation and the selective forces that have shaped their evolution: these structures provide buoyancy and thus allow access to light in important groups of photosynthetic primary producers that would otherwise sink out into darker, deeper waters. More recently my research focus has switched to the genetic structure of microbial populations and communities. The aim has been to explore and quantify the interaction between the environment and microbial genomes in an attempt to understand succession and evolution in the microbial communities that form the base of the food chain in aquatic ecosystems. Current work focuses on phytoplanktonic microorganisms and the viruses that help shape their population structures. In addition to these studies I have contributed significantly to an improved understanding of the taxonomy of morphologically depauperate species of the red algae and of both green and brown algal endophytes growing within seaweed hosts. Both macro- and microalgae are now under active investigation as a feedstock for the production of biofuels, and so a knowledge and understanding of the biology of these organisms is once more an ‘in demand’ subject area.

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  Professor Geoff Kneale

  Institute of Biomedical and Biomolecular Sciences (IBBS)

  I am Professor of Biomolecular Science in the School of Biological Sciences, where I first started as a senior lecturer in 1985 so I am an ‘old hand’ here! I was also cofounder (and until recently, Director) of the Institute of Biomedical and Biomolecular Sciences, a multi-disciplinary Institute that crosses a number of departmental boundaries, and I led our submission into the last two Research Assessment Exercises. For many years, I was also Associate Dean (Research) in the Science Faculty.

  My research is principally concerned with understanding how proteins interact with DNA and the precise mechanisms that determine how genes are regulated. In my research group, we use a wide variety of biophysical techniques (such as X-ray Crystallography and Neutron Scattering, to name but two) in order to delve into the molecular structures at a detailed atomic level and try to deduce how they work. I have receievd research grants from BBSRC, EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Leverhulme Trust over the last 25 years, totalling around £6m, and have published almost 100 research papers in leading academic journals. In this time I have supervised 20 PhD students and 12 postdoctoral researchers and I am pleased to say that most of them have gone on to have very successful research and/or academic careers.

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• Professor Graham A Mills

  Professor of Environmental Chemistry

  I am an analytical chemist and engineer. My research interests are in the use of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques in biomedical and environmental analyses and the development of novel sample preparation methods in analytical chemistry. My more recent research has been directed towards the development of passive sampling devices to monitor water quality and have designed and patented the Chemcatcher sampler. This device is now being used worldwide for the measurement of both organic and inorganic pollutants in the aquatic environment. I am involved in a number of academic, governmental and industrial collaborations across Europe in respect of monitoring water quality. Since 2000, I have been the overall Programme Manager for the Faculty of Science’s Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care. This is one of the largest doctorate programmes of its kind in the UK and has over 50 graduates since the inception of the course.

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  Professor Geoffrey J Pilkington

  Professor of Cellular and Molecular Neuro-oncology

  I have spent my entire career in brain tumour research, having started work on chemical neuro-carcinogenesis where I studied brain cancer stem cells and brain tumour development at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the early 1970s and the subsequent spent 23 years at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, latterly as Professor of Experimental Neuro-oncology. In 2003, I moved to the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, at Portsmouth, as Professor of Cellular and Molecular Neuro-oncology and Director of Research. The research focus of my group is on the development of models for the study of intrinsic brain tumours, elucidation of the mechanisms underlying diffuse local invasive behaviour in glioma and development of novel strategies for mitochondrial mediation of apoptosis in glioma.

  I am currently President of the British Neuro-oncology Society, having been vice-president for the past two years and Iregularly attend the quarterly all party parliamentary group meetings on brain tumours at Westminster. I recently established SEBTA (the South of England Brain Tumour Alliance) which brings together seven regional brain tumour research, diagnosis and therapy centres, in order to maximize research data from minimal tissue and cell resources and to fast track lab-based research towards translational medicine and clinical trials.

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  Professor Vasudevi Reddy

  Professor of Developmental and Cultural Psychology

  Director, Centre for Situated Action and Communication

  I studied Psychology (as well as Political Science and English Literature) in India before completing a PhD in Edinburgh. My primary interest is in the way in which we come to understand (or misunderstand) other people. To address this, I have been, for over twenty years, studying communicative interactions in very early infancy as well as in young children with developmental disorders. In the Centre for Situated Action and Communication we have been focusing on the influence of ecological contexts on the potential for social engagements and on the emergence of understanding. Studying everyday interactions across cultures has enabled me to challenge the claims in dominant theories about infant development and about the underpinnings of knowledge. Our current research is supported by a Marie Curie Initial Training Network focusing on an embodied science of intersubjectivity www.tesis-itn.eu. Previous grant funding has come from the Economic and Social Research Council and EU 6th framework grants. I received a mid-career award (a while ago!) for science from the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology, and more recently a book award from the British Psychological Society.

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  Professor Jim Smith

  Professor of Environmental Science

  I am an expert in modelling radioactive pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. I have co-ordinated three multi-national EU-funded projects on the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and regularly work in the Chernobyl 30-km Zone. I am lead author of a major book on the accident: Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences and authored a key Nature opinion piece in the wake of the recent Fukushima accident. I am a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Expert Group on the Chernobyl Cooling Pond, and Chairman of the UK Coordinating Group on Environmental Radioactivity. Formerly at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, I am now Professor of Environmental Science at Portsmouth University.

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  Professor Michael John Tipton

  Professor of Human and Applied Physiology

  After completing my education at the Universities of Keele and London, I joined the University of Surrey in 1986. After 12 years at the Robens Institute and European Institute of Health and Medical Science I moved to the University of Portsmouth in 1998. In addition to my University positions, I was based at the Institute of Naval Medicine (INM) from 1983 to 2004 and was Consultant Head of the Environmental Medicine Unit of the INM from 1996. I have spent over 25 years researching and advising in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology and survival in the sea. I have published over 350 scientific papers, reports, chapters and books in these areas. I am a consultant in survival and thermal medicine to the Royal Air Force and UKSport; he sits on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Medical & Survival Committee, Surf Lifesaving GB’s medical and research advisory panel and the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society’s medical advisory board. He Chairs UK Sport’s Research Advisory Group which oversees all medical and technological research undertaken with and for Team GB’s athletes. Prof Tipton is Patron of the SARbot charity and section editor of the journal Extreme Physiology and Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Prof Tipton provides advice to a range of universities, government departments, industries, medical, search and rescue and media organisations.

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  Professor Aldert Vrij

  Professor of Applied Social Psychology

  I am Professor of Applied Social Psychology at the University of Portsmouth (UK). My main research interests are (i) nonverbal and verbal correlates of deception and (ii) people’s ability to detect deceit. I have received grants from the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Erasmus Mundus (Joint Doctorate programmes), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Innovation Group, Leverhulme Trust, Nuffield Foundation, and Dutch, British and American Governments, totalling more than £2,500,000. My research has a strongly applied quality, and I work closely with practitioners (police, security services and insurers), both in terms of conducting collaborative research and in disseminating the research findings via seminars and workshops. I have published 400 articles and 7 books on the above topics, including my 2008 book Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and opportunities (published by Wiley), a comprehensive overview of research into nonverbal, verbal and physiological deception and lie detection.

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