I am a researcher in the social, economic and geographical sciences research group at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.  I previously spent around 8 years working at the school of architecture and the built environment (during which time, I ran the 3rd EPUK conference), researching among other things sustainable wastewater systems, perceptions of building facades, and methods for public participation in urban planning.  Since I have been working as a researcher in the James Hutton Institute, my focus has been on using various methods from the social science toolkit (and enhancing this toolkit where possible with other data collection and analytical techniques) to better understand pro-environmental behaviour.  I am currently involved in a large research programme looking at aspects of food culture and diet choices using agent based models.  I have also been involved in a number of EU projects, including GILDED, LOCAW, and (currently) GLAMURS.  In the last couple of years, my attention has been drawn to the temporal aspect of person-environment relationships, and I am currently carrying out studies looking at time-use and time pressure in relation to pro-environmental behaviour.

During my time on the IAPS board, I have been involved in a number of administrative roles – first as treasurer, and more recently as the person responsible for redeveloping the IAPS website.  Although I am pleased with the overall style of the new IAPS website, there is still a significant amount of work to be done to make sure that it meets the needs of the IAPS members – especially in relation to the IAPS networks.  The new website currently allows people to specify which of the IAPS networks they are interested in joining at the point of registration (or renewal), but this needs to be better integrated with the networks themselves.   I am standing for re-election to the board in the hope that I will be able to continue contributing to the functioning of the association – initially by completing the tasks associated with the website, but also in promoting people-environment studies generally and IAPS in particular.  I strongly believe that this is a very important time for IAPS.  Conference attendance is high, and from my personal point of view, the sense of having a true academic peer group is certainly very high at IAPS conferences.  IAPS is my academic family.  It is now more important than ever for IAPS to set itself at the forefront of current thinking in the field of people-environment studies.