Research Community

Laura Waddams is currently a second year Doctorate in Clinical Psychology student at the University of Essex. Laura has research interests in male and Veteran mental health, anxiety disorders, and the connection between mental health and physical health. Laura’s prior research has included a systematic review on the experience of depression in older men, and a narrative analysis on recovery memoirs. Laura is currently working on her thesis project, which is a qualitative exploration of body modification practices in UK male military Veterans who have an injury, disability, illness, and/or mental health condition.

Lyndsay graduated from the University of Nottingham with an integrated Master of Nursing Science in 2011 before working as a staff nurse in neurosurgery at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. She went on to complete an MSc in Public Health Practice at the University of Surrey (2013), qualifying as a Health Visitor and working within military communities, where she supported mothers with perinatal mental health challenges. These experiences informed her MSc dissertation and inspired her doctoral work. Lyndsay’s PhD employs a Longitudinal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (LIPA) framework to examine the lived experiences of non-serving British Army mothers during the perinatal period, generating insights to advance understanding and guide future public health practice and research.

Professor Anthony Bull is Professor of Musculoskeletal Mechanics at Imperial College London and is a leading figure in the field of joint mechanics and their clinical applications. He is currently Director of Imperial’s Centre for Injury Studies (CIS) and co-leads the ADVANCE study with colleagues from MoD and King's College London. He has extensive research activity in orthopaedic implant and surgical design in many areas associated with lower limb and upper limb biomechanics and ageing. 

The primary focus of Professor Chérie Armour's research programme is on mental health in those who have experienced stress, adversity, and trauma. She focuses on a range of psychological disorders including, but not limited to, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and Dissociation. Chérie is also focused on exploring the concept of post adversity psychological resilience. She works across child, adolescent, and adult populations and focuses on a range of trauma types including childhood maltreatment, interpersonal, sexual, and domestic violence, and occupational related traumas (experienced by healthcare workers, emergency services and Armed Forces). In addition, Chérie looks at the impact of secondary trauma in families.

Professor Glyn Howatson is an Army Veteran and is currently a Professor in Human and Applied Physiology. His research interests predominantly lie in optimising human performance (from clinical populations to elite athletes). He focuses on understanding the stress-recovery-adaptation continuum using training and nutritional interventions to manipulate human physiology. His work has encompassed the interaction of bio-psych-social factors influencing the human condition and the sex differences affecting human performance.

Professor Matt Kiernan is the Director of The Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families' Research at Northumbria University. Prior to this, he was the Head of Mental Health Nursing in the Royal Navy, the Specialist Nurse Advisor for Mental Health (Royal Navy) and the Defence Specialist Nurse Advisor (Mental Health). In his current role, he leads a range of research projects involving Veterans, Service personnel and their families, exploring health and social care, public health, psychology, social policy, human geography and nursing.

Professor Nicola Fear holds a Chair in Epidemiology at the Academic Department of Military Mental Health and is Director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College London and one of the Directors of the Centre for Evidence for the Armed Forces Community. Nicola has worked in the field of occupational health throughout her career, including within the UK Ministry of Defence as their Consultant Epidemiologist. She trained in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford, from where she obtained her doctorate. Professor Fear is one of the Principal Investigators on the KCMHR military cohort study and leads several studies looking at the impact of military service on families. 

Professor Sir Simon Wessely FRS is a Psychiatrist and Epidemiologist. He started his psychiatry training at the Maudsley in 1984, and has been at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, ever since. He established the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) in 1996 and remains the Co-director alongside Professor Nicola Fear. His main areas of research have been in unexplained symptoms/syndromes, military health, epidemiology, clinical trials and how populations and people react to adversity.

Professor Karatzias, is a Professor of Mental Health at Edinburgh Napier University, UK and a Clinical & Health Psychologist at the Rivers Centre for Traumatic Stress, Edinburgh, UK. He is the Director of Research at Edinburgh Napier University. He is a former Chair of the British Psychological Society Scotland Working Party for Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse (BPSSS) and is a current member of the Committee of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Crisis, Disaster & Trauma Section and UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS). He has spent his entire clinical and academic career working in the field of psychological trauma. In collaboration with national and international research partners he has developed a special interest in the effects and treatment of psychological trauma on physical and mental health; on prison populations; and on people with learning disabilities. He has published widely in these areas.

As a social scientist within Robert Gordon University, Professor Zoe Morrison worked to further the application of business and management studies to policy driven change programmes. Her work aimed to inform leadership and human resource management theory through understanding individual experiences of change, including changing expectations of work, careers and employment, and adoption and implementation of technological innovation. Her interpretivist research agenda was curiosity inspired and theoretically driven, drawing on the sociology of work and organisations, and military and family sociologies. Zoe worked in three areas: health, defence and carbon emissions mitigation, often referred to as decarbonisation. Zoe has now moved role to be the Lead Specialist in Culture and Experience at NHS Grampian. 

Professor Zubair Ahmed is a Professor of Neuroscience and Lead for the Neuroscience and Ophthalmology Section at the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham. His current focus for research is aligned with University identified priority areas of Immunology, Infection and Inflammation related to trauma and in particular Neurotrauma affecting the eye, brain and spinal cord. Some of his research projects are aimed at identifying the immune/inflammatory, metabolic and repair systems that determine the outcome of neurotrauma. He has an independent programme of research based on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling repair and regeneration in the central nervous system. 

Dr Samantha Brooks is a researcher at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research at King’s College London. She has a PhD in Social Psychology, with a thesis focusing on how accountability is negotiated in talk about body image and disordered eating. She is experienced in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches as well as evidence synthesis and literature reviews. Her previous research has spanned topics such as non-deployment stressors; stigma and help-seeking in the Armed Forces; secondary traumatic stress in veterans’ significant others; the effectiveness of a mobile app to support veterans’ mental health; the impacts of trauma; the development of trauma-informed interventions; and mental health in the workplace. She currently works on the AFTER study, exploring the psychosocial and sexual experiences of veterans and their partners affected by genital injuries sustained in combat.