A world-renowned psychologist has joined the University’s Department for Health for six months on a visiting professorship funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Richard Ryan is an internationally leading professor of psychology, psychiatry, and education and a renowned authority on human motivation.
He is co-founder of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an empirically based theory of human motivation, personality, and development.
SDT is the product of a comprehensive and systematic program of inductive research that has engaged hundreds of scholars around the globe.
As part of his visit Professor Ryan will present several Leverhulme Lectures at Bath. The first two will be aimed at a general audience and give an overview of SDT while subsequent lectures will be more detailed and focused on the applications in various domains and aimed at researchers in fields such as health, psychology, education, and social policy.
He will also hold research seminars and informal discussions with researches at Bath to establish potential collaborations on arising topics of common interest within a systematic body of work, manifesting in both for peer review manuscripts and funding applications.
Professor Ryan said: “I am very excited to be here. As I am on a sabbatical I have more freedom to carry out discussions and the opportunity to network with UK scientists. One of the reasons I chose to come to Bath was that there are already scholars here working with the Self-Determination Theory across different departments within the University and I am hoping to have more interface with them.”
Dr Martyn Standage from the Department for Health who co-ordinated Professor Ryan’s visiting professorship said: “Professor Ryan’s vast expertise, experience, and knowledge pertaining to a wide array of basic and applied motivation-related issues, coupled with his commitment to research training and teaching, made him an ideal recipient for a Visiting Professorship.
“He is ideally placed to interact fruitfully during his visit, and to extend knowledge to scholars at Bath as the host institution and beyond. The extensive nature of the planned activities, such as the detailed lectures and seminars, in addition to focused research, will make a substantial contribution to skills in Bath and the broader UK academic community.”