Anna Catriona Whittaker (previously Phillips)

I am a Professor in Behavioural Medicine, a Chartered Health Psychologist, and Fellow of the British Psychological Society working at the University of Stirling in the areas of Physical Activity and Health, Behavioural Medicine, Psychoneuroimmunology, and Cardiovascular Psychophysiology. My physical activity research takes an inter-disciplinary mixed methods approach and I am a strong promoter of collaboration across disciplines. My main topics of research are: 1) Ageing and physical activity effects on health and wellbeing, particularly on physical function and psychological wellbeing, where I have been/am engaged in large grant funded projects to examine the synergistic impact of ageing and behavioural factors such as physical activity, social interaction and use of digital technology, on indices of physical frailty, immunity, and psychosocial wellbeing; 2) Cardiovascular stress reactivity and its associations with mental and physical health, e.g., exercise dependence and childhood trauma where I am engaged in several collaborations on large datasets as well as laboratory-based projects. I recently led a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Innovative Training Network on Physical Activity and Nutrition INfluences In ageing (PANINI) training 11 Early-Stage Researchers with 20 European partners (academic, industry, health and third sector) and a CSO-funded project on physical and social activity in ageing during Covid19. My current main grant on which I am co-PI is UKRI-Healthy Ageing funded exploring how physical activity through digital technology can enhance social connectedness in older people. I have won several international research awards and am well published (>200 peer-reviewed publications) in these areas in the top journals in my field. I aim to develop my collaborative work in physical activity further to incorporate earlier intervention in the lifespan for health promotion and prevention of mental and physical health problems as well as working on their amelioration in older age. With my existing and new collaborators, physical activity interventions incorporating psychosocial components will be developed to be applied in individuals identified as at risk of poor health and wellbeing outcomes, e.g., metabolic syndrome, frailty, loneliness. This integration of physiology and psychology in the context of physical activity is one of my long-term research goals to increase healthspan not just lifespan considering important population diversity factors such as socio-economic inequalities in health. I am working with industry, SMEs, charities, and international collaborators to take this goal forward. Since moving to Stirling in 2019 I have established a new Physical Activity research group (SPARKLE), attracted substantial funding for multi-disciplinary physical activity research, and grown PhD training and early career staff mentoring in this area. I am strongly committed to public engagement and outreach to increase understanding of physical activity from a multi-disciplinary perspective as well as to generate impact from my previous and ongoing research and I have a strong public engagement profile.