Biography

I joined the University of Portsmouth from Surrey 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 Division from 1996. I have spent 40 years working in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology. Our team in the Extreme Environments Laboratory, in the School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science, examine the physiological, pathophysiological and psychological responses to adverse environments and the selection, preparation and protection of those who enter such environments. I have published over 750 scientific papers, reports, chapters and abstracts in these areas as well as the books, “The Essentials of Sea Survival” (Golden & Tipton, 2002) and “The Science of Beach Lifeguarding” (Tipton & Wooler, 2016). I have been a consultant in survival and thermal medicine to the Royal Air Force and UKSport; I completed 10 years on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Medical & Survival Committee and am now a member of the Council of the RNLI and Consultant advisor to the Medical Director. I am a member of the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society’s Medical Advisory Board and the ethics committee of Qinetiq.  I chaired UKSport’s Research Advisory Group and sat on the English Institute of Sports’ Research & Ethics Advisory Board. I chaired the Energy Institute’s Health Technical Committee and remain a member of that committee. I was a Trustee and Director of Surf Lifesaving GB for ten years up to 2022. I was Senior Editor of the journal “Extreme Physiology and Medicine” until 2016 and ended my six year stint as Editor-in-Chief of The Physiological Society’s journal “Experimental Physiology” in 2022.  I am a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Medicine and The Physiological Society and a Trustee of The Physiological Society. Awards: MBE for services to physiological research in extreme environments; Honorary Life Member of the International Association for Safety & Survival Training in recognition of our work in sea survival; Ireland Medal for saving lives from drowning worldwide; Life membership of Surf Lifesaving GB for services to surf lifesaving; HL Swiftwater Rescue (USA) Lifetime achievement award; Visiting Professor at Waterford Univerity and King's College, London. I provide advice to a range of universities, government departments, industries, medical, legal, search and rescue and media organisations.

 

Research interests

The physiological, pathophysiological and psychological responses to adverse environments and the selection, preparation and protection of those who enter such environments.