Professor Ussher joined St George's in 1999 as a Research Fellow and PhD student. On completion of his PhD (2001), Professor Ussher was appointed as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006, Reader in Health Psychology in 2010 and received his Chair in Behavioural Medicine in 2013. In 2013, Professor Ussher was also awarded the Hamid Ghodse Foundation Chair in Addiction, in recognition of his research on smoking cessation. From 2015-2018 Professor Ussher was appointed as Associate Dean for Widening Participation. Since 2018 he has divided his time between St George's and the University of Stirling, where he is also Professor of Behavioural Medicine. Professor Ussher acts  as a consultant for the Department of Health (DoH) on tobacco control.

Professor Ussher has broad experience of leading randomised controlled trials, large surveys and cohort studies, systematic reviews, qualitative studies, theoretical modelling of behavioural interventions, and experimental studies testing the short-term effects of behavioural interventions. Current funded studies he is leading or collaborating on include: 

• Maternal exposure to carcinogens, toxicants and nicotine among vapers, smokers and nicotine replacement therapy users during pregnancy
• FIPPS trial of financial incentives for preventing postpartum return to smoking
• NeSCi - development of a neonatal unit smoking cessation intervention
• PRoGRAMME-A - developing a peer-led, social network intervention for preventing gambling related harm in adolescents
• N-READY study of an adherence intervention for nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation in pregnancy
• BabyBreathe RCT of a complex intervention to prevent return to smoking postpartum
• Digital intervention delivered in general practice to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour of patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabete
• Babybreathe feasibility RCT to promote health skincare practices among newly born infants

Current funding awards are from NIHR Health Technology Assessment, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit,  NIHR Public Health Research, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research, MRC PHIND, Czech Health Research Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, CRUK Population Research Committee.

Professor Tim Coleman, University of Nottingham

Professor Sarah Lewis, University of Nottingham

Dr Sue Cooper, University of Nottingham)

Professor Adrian Taylor, University of Plymouth

Professor Catlin Notley, University of East Anglia

Dr Felix Naughton, University of East Anglia

Professor Linda Bauld, University of Edinburgh

Dr Fiona Dobbie, University of Edinburgh

Professor Peter Hajek, Queen Mary, University of London

Professor David Tappin, University of Glasgow

Dr Tomas Verkovsky, Charles University, Czech Republic