Dr Richard Pulsford (He/Him)

Dr Richard Pulsford is Director of Postgraduate Research and Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity and Public Health within the Public Health and Sports Science Department. He is an internationally recognised expert in the influence of movement behaviours (physical activity and sedentary behaviour) on health, and the use of wearable sensors to capture movement behaviours in epidemiological and clinical research.

Dr Pulsford was a mumber of the UK Cheif Medical Officers expert working group for the development of the most recent UK public health guidelines for physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Dr Pulsdford is a member of the working group for the ProPASS (Prospective studies of Physical Activity Sedentary behaviour and Sleep) consortium, and an editor for the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport.

Broad Resarch Specialisms

• Epidemiology: Physical activity and sedentray behaviour and links with health/disease
• Measurement: The use of acceleromters (wearable sensors) for precise measurment of day-to-day patterns of physical activity and sedentary behaviour
• Diabetes: The acute and longer term impacs of exercise and physical activity on diabetes-relevant outcomes
• Cardiometabolic Health: The impact of habitual physical actvity on cardiometabolic health across the lifespan

Supervison of Early Career Researchers:

Dr Pulsford currently has capacity to supervise early career researchers interested in acceleormeter-measured movement behaviours and links with health and disease. If you are a prospective research fellow or PhD student who would like to discuss work in this area please get in touch.

Career: 

Dr Pulsford obtained Undergraduate and Masters degrees from Loughborough University before spending  Following my time at Loughborough U three years as a Research Associate at the Institute of Child Health at University College London on a strand of the Millennium Cohort Study examining physical activity patterns in UK children. Dr Pulsford joined what was formerly the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter in 2010 to undertake a PhD examining the associations between sedentary behaviour (sitting) and health outcomes, under the supervision of Associate Professor Melvyn Hillsdon (Sport and Health Sciences) and Dr Katarina Kos (University of Exeter Medical School). Dr Pulsford was appointed as a faculty member in September 2013 to continue his research and contribute to undergraduate and Postgraduate education, and is Director of Postgraduate Research for what is now the department of Public Health and Sports Science within the Faculty of Health and Life Science