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
• 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 diabetes
• Babybathe feasibility RCT to promote health skincare practices among newly born infants

Current funding awards are from NIHR Public Health Research, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research, NIHR Policy Research Unit in Public Heath, Czech Health Research Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Professor Tim Coleman, University of Nottingham

Professor Sarah Lewis, University of Nottingham

Professor Catlin Notley, University of East Anglia

Dr Felix Naughton, University of East Anglia

Professor Linda Bauld, University of Edinburgh

Dr Tomas Verkovsky, Charles University, Czech Republic