Leadership and management

Scott Cairney is Professor of Sleep and Mental Health in the Department of Psychology. His research examines the neurocognitive mechanisms through which sleep disturbances contribute to mental health problems, using neuroimaging techniques including fMRI, EEG and MEG. He also works with collaborators in health and social care, charities, and local and national government to explore how scientific discoveries about sleep and mental health can be translated into benefits for individuals and society.

Scott’s research has been supported by a wide range of funders, including UKRI, the ERC, Wellcome Trust, NIHR and industry partners. With funding from AHRC, he leads a UKRI Gambling Harms Research and Innovation Partnership investigating the relationship between sleep problems and gambling-related harm. The partnership brings together stakeholders from local authorities, charities and NHS services, alongside people with lived experience of gambling harm and sleep problems, to co-design research that responds directly to the needs of affected individuals and communities.

His MRC-funded research investigates how sleep disturbance contributes to emotional dysregulation, a core feature of common mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. His ERC-funded research explores how sleep can strengthen or weaken memories in line with an individual’s cognitive and emotional goals. In 2025, Scott received the British Association for Psychopharmacology’s Senior Translational Research Prize.

Ailbhe O’Loughlin is a Senior Lecturer in Law at York Law School. Her research focuses on the intersection between mental health and criminal justice. Her work has examined how judges use psychiatric evidence at sentencing, how the courts conceive of a right to rehabilitation for long-term prisoners, and how offenders who are labelled as ‘dangerous’ are understood and managed by the criminal justice and mental health systems. Her monograph, Law and Personality Disorder: Human Rights, Human Risks, and Rehabilitation (OUP 2024) deconstructs competing images of offenders diagnosed with personality disorders and the dilemmas they present, combining insights from criminology, psychiatry, psychology, and law. The book critically engages with the alluring narrative that the state has a duty to protect the public from ‘dangerous’ individuals, but that it can also protect the human rights of the ‘dangerous’ by providing them with rehabilitation opportunities.

Ailbhe is an expert in sentencing who regularly contributes to consultations and law reform projects. In 2022, she led a literature review entitled Mental Health and Sentencing for the Scottish Sentencing Council. She has authored an effectiveness bulletin on Mental Health Treatment Requirements and an issues paper on Mental Health, Disability and Sentencing for the Sentencing Academy, a research and public engagement charity dedicated to promoting evidence-based sentencing.

Dean McMillan is Professor of Clinical Psychology in Hull York Medical School and the Department of Health Sciences. He is a clinical psychologist by background whose research focuses on the development and evaluation of scalable psychological interventions for common mental health problems.

His research interests include behavioural activation, cognitive behaviour therapy, low-intensity psychological interventions, and the diagnostic accuracy of psychological screening instruments. His has been involved in major trials of behavioural activation for depression, including the COBRA trial comparing behavioural activation with cognitive behaviour therapy, as well as research into behavioural activation for older people experiencing social isolation.

He has also contributed to research on screening and early intervention for depression, perinatal mental health and mental health difficulties among young people.

Alex Pike is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health at the University of York, UK. She is interested broadly in understanding mechanisms that precipitate and maintain mental ill-health, particularly eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and trauma-related disorders.

Much of Alex’s research uses cognitive and computational psychiatry techniques  to obtain these mechanistic insights, but she has also dipped a toe into interoception, psychometrics, meta-science, and qualitative research. One current funded project involves the investigation of agency and control in relation to eating disorders, using computational modelling to understand how agency is valued and learnt.

Other research has investigated reinforcement learning mechanisms that might lead to negative affective bias in anxiety and depression, uncertainty learning and habit learning in eating disorders, and measurement of clinically-relevant constructs such as gastric interoception and catastrophising. Alex is also an enthusiastic proponent of multidisciplinary research, and as part of her IMRY role, leads the Trauma Research Interest Group. 

She has received funding from the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wellcome Trust, and is an associate editor for the Journal ‘Royal Society Open Science’. She is also  a Council Member of the British Association of Psychopharmacology. 

Martin Webber is Professor of Social Work and Director of the Mental Health Social Care Research Centre in the School for Business and Society. His research focuses on the development and evaluation of social interventions or approaches that support people with mental health problems. He is particularly interested in improving social outcomes for people experiencing difficulties with their mental health.

He is currently leading a diverse portfolio of studies including a feasibility trial of ‘Seeking Safety’ for people with complex post-traumatic stress disorder; an evaluation of inclusive volunteering for people with mental health problems and other support needs; an evaluation of support services for young mums; and the development and validation of a screening tool for social frailty in older people.

Within the Mental Health Social Care Research Centre he leads a small team of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. His funding is from a range of NIHR programmes, though he is also a co-investigator in the ESRC-funded Vulnerabilities and Policing Futures Research Centre also based in the School for Business and Society.

Vijay Gc is a Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York. His research focuses on cost-effectiveness analysis, decision analytic modelling, and health technology assessment (HTA).

He conducts economic evaluations across a broad spectrum of healthcare technologies, including complex healthcare interventions ranging from primary care behaviour/lifestyle interventions to diagnostic tests, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and digital health applications. His work spans key clinical areas, including cardiovascular disease, oncology, musculoskeletal care, paediatrics and mental health. He has contributed to NICE technology appraisals as a member of an independent academic group conducting assessments and evidence reviews.

Vijay's research is funded by a range of NIHR programmes, including Mental Health Research Group (MHRG), Health Technology Assessment and Public Health Research programmes. He currently leads the health economics work for one of the newly funded MHRGs, hosted by the University of Huddersfield.

Caroline Waddington-Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Music Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Music Education and Human Flourishing at York. Her research examines the relationship between music, mental health and flourishing, and is driven by a commitment to making music more accessible to people who may face barriers to participation. She leads CoMusicate (funded by the Closing the Gap Network) with Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks. The project aims to explore the lived experiences of adults with severe mental ill-health in relation to music, and to co-design new music technology that can support connection and creative exploration.

Caroline also leads Smile (funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and SEMPRE), a project improving music provision for pupils with profound and severe learning disabilities. Other current projects explore the online practices of d/Deaf music educators and the impact of DJing on adolescent identity and wellbeing (funded by Born in Bradford).

Rebecca Chalkley is the Research Development Manager covering the health portfolio at the University of York.  She is part of the Research Development Team located within the Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (RIKE) directorate.  

Her responsibilities include supporting strategically important research initiatives and developmental activities, coordinating inter- and multidisciplinary research initiatives and applications, brokering and managing research and innovation partnerships with both internal and external stakeholders.

Roxana Freeman is the Institute’s Administration Coordinator.  She provides administrative support to the institute, covering a range of tasks that include general and specialised administration, strategic committee and governance support, research and event management, and both internal and external communications.