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The Centre for 21st Century Public Health Brown Bag Seminar Series

This seminar series for Bath researchers aims to spark interdisciplinary collaboration and offer opportunities for exchanging ideas.

About the series


Our monthly Brown Bag Seminar Series is an informal and supportive space for University of Bath researchers to share work in progress, spark interdisciplinary collaborations, and exchange ideas. The seminars are organised around broad research themes, ranging from corporate influence on science, to tobacco and other addictions, commercial and other structural determinants of health, and healthy environments and sustainable economies.

Sessions will be held in person on the first Tuesday of every month at 12 noon. A light lunch will be provided, and the seminar itself will begin promptly at 12.15 pm, running for approximately one hour. The room will remain booked until 1.30 pm to allow time for informal discussion and networking.

Whether you are developing a paper, planning a grant, or exploring a new research question, these sessions are a great way to connect with colleagues across the University.

Please contact c21ph@bath.ac.uk to book your place.

Stock image of a sinStock image of a speaker giving a talk at business meeting. Audience in conference hall. Rear view of unrecognised participant in audience.

Upcoming events

Find out about the events in the series.


Threats of climate change to governance for health and equity: taking a commercial determinants and multisectoral policy perspective

Dan Hunt

Tuesday 20 January

Dan Hunt is a PhD student in the Department for Health. His research focus is in the commercial and economic determinants of health, with particular attention to the intersection of business, health, equity and climate change. His doctoral research focuses on how policies to improve health and tackle climate change grapple with the role of commercial actors, their influencing practices, and their enabling economic systems. He also investigates the adoption of governance mechanisms to address these commercial forces in local, national and global multisectoral policies.

From Experiments to Electronic Records: Combining Traditional and Digital Methods in Public Health Research

Professor David Ellis

Tuesday 27 January

David Ellis is a Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Bath and a leading expert in how digital technologies are changing the way research is conducted and the way we live. His research sits at the intersection of psychology and data science, developing cutting edge methodologies to understand human behaviour. His research has been published in world-leading journals and has been supported by research councils, government agencies and industry partners, directly influencing policy and practice from as informing NICE guidelines and NHS interventions improving patient attendance, to contributing to UK government reports on the impacts of digital technology.

Corporate influence on Science: Challenges and Potential Solutions

Dr Tess Legg

Tuesday 17 February

Dr Tess Legg is a research associate with the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, a contributor to knowledge exchange platform Tobacco Tactics and a coordinating committee member of the Global Commercial Determinants of Health Action Network (G-CAN). Her research centres on understanding how and why corporate actors seek to influence science, and exploring ways to ensure science works for the public good.

Presentation Title TBC

Dr Theresa Smith

Wednesday 4 March

Dr Theresa Smith is a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Her research is in methods for data with spatial or longitudinal dependence with interest in applications in the health and social sciences, particularly the development of clinical decision support tools.

Homes, health, and community wellbeing: Monetising urban design impacts to support better policy making

Dr Eleanor Eaton

Tuesday 17 March

Dr Eleanor Eaton holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bath. She is interested in the economics of health and urban environments, and especially in metrics which can help decision making to improve the places where we live. She has worked within the UKPRP funded project, “Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development’ (TRUUD), on quantifying the impacts of unhealthy urban development. Her focus is specifically on the societal costs of health, including direct and indirect costs, such as healthcare and productivity costs, and non-market valuation techniques, such as stated preference and contingent valuation.

Mental Health in Young People

Dr Pamela Jacobsen

Tuesday 31 March

Dr Pamela Jacobsen is a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Psychology. She is the Director of the NIHR-funded Bath Mental Health Research Group, which focuses on children and young people aged 12-25. She is a Clinical Psychologist by background specialising in the development and evaluation of psychological therapies for psychosis with a special interest in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness and research in acute/inpatient psychiatric settings.

Presentation Title TBC

Professor Julie Barnett

Tuesday 14 April

Professor Julie Barnett is a Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Bath. She is a social and health psychologist with particular interest and expertise in risk: public appreciation of risk, risk communication and risk management. Professor Barnett is co-director and the social science lead of the Centre of Excellence in Water Based Early Warning Systems for Health Protection. Her research interests include pharmaceutical pollution, social prescribing and the role of social connection in addressing loneliness and social isolation.

Using electronic health records for public health research

Dr Helen McDonald

Dr Helen McDonald is a Senior Lecturer within the Department of life Sciences. She is a clinical epidemiologist who uses routinely collected health record data to study public health, with a focus in vaccine uptake, safety and effectiveness. Helen joined the NHS as a nursing auxiliary, then studied medicine (intercalating in philosophy), was a clinical advisor to the Chief Medical Officer from 2007 to 2008 and then worked as a junior doctor in London, trained in public health, working across a variety of organisations including local health protection teams, Local Authorities, NHS England (London) and the Department of Health.