My research examines how personal and contextual factors foster sustained behaviour change, physical activity, and psychological well-being, with broad applications across health, education, workplaces, and pro-environmental behaviours. My main employment is at the University of Southern Denmark where I am a Professor of Motivation Science and Director of the Danish Centre for Motivation and Behaviour Change (DRIVEN).
I was born in Greece where I finished my first degree at the University of Athens (1993). I then moved to the UK to pursue a Masters (Loughborough University; 1996) and a PhD in Medical Sciences (Exeter University, 1999). My longest period of employment (2001-2014) has been at the University of Birmingham. In 2014 I joined the School of Psychology at Curtin University (Australia) as a “Distinguished Professor of Psychology”. In July 2021, I joined the Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) as a Professor of Motivation Science. I am also an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Psychology at the same university as well as a Danish Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS) Chair. In the recent past, I have been part-time professor at Halmstad University, Sweden and NIH in Norway.
To date, I have written two books on statistics that were published by Routledge in 2001 and by Wiley in 2016. I have also published over 330 peer reviewed articles and 30 book chapters. My research has been published in various esteemed journals (e.g., Annual Review of Psychology, Nature Human Behaviour, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Journal of Educational Psychology; Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Sports Medicine, British Journal of Sports Medicine, Health Psychology).
According to Google Scholar, my research has received over 61,000 citations (h index=115). I have been a lead or co-investigator of grants awarded a total funding of 34.1m in Euros from major funders in Denmark (DFF, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Tryg Foundation, Heart Foundation, Nordea Foundation), the UK (ESRC, MRC), the Australian Research Council, the Australian Heart Foundation, the European Union (Horizon, FP7, Erasmus Plus), the International Olympic Committee, Healthway (Western Australian Department of Health), Cancer Council Western Australia, UK charities (Nuffield), UK local health authorities, the Australian Army, and the industry.
I have been invited to deliver 15 keynote lectures at international prestigious conferences. In a seminal review by John Ioannidis of the top 2% of scientists worldwide I ranked top 0.06% globally, across 178 fields of research and all age groups.
Service
From 2011 to 2022 I was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise (an Elsevier journal and also the official publication of the European Society of Sport and Exercise Psychology). I am currently serving on the editorial board of many journals (e.g., Annals of Behavioural Medicine, Motivation Science, Motivation and Emotion). From 2019 to 2021, I was a member of the Panel for Psychology, Pedagogy, Didactics and Social Work, of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), a Belgian research council. I have provided consultancy services to Sport England, Nike, and Sports Coach UK for various physical activity campaigns.
Awards
I have received Fellowships from the American Psychological Association, the British Psychological Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine (US), the National Academy of Kinesiology (US), and the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). I have received Distinguished Scholar awards from the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (2019) and the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (2025).
