Professor Paul Bissell
Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation
As Pro Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation at the University of Chester, Professor Bissell has a range of responsibilities through his role as a member of the University Strategic Executive Team (SET), Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Senate, ensuring the implementation and delivery of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy. Additionally, as Chair of the University Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee and a member of PGR Subcommittee and Academic Staff Review Committee, Professor Bissell ensures that the University’s research and knowledge exchange activities are of the highest quality, producing excellent outcomes for staff, student and project partners.
As part of his current priorities, Professor Bissell leads on the enhancement of activities included within the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES). He also plays a key role in enhancing the experience of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Students with respect to research and knowledge exchange, aligned to the Citizen Student Strategy. Furthermore, Professor Bissell is delivering the first Current Research Information System (Symplectic Elements) at the University.
Professor Bissell remains an active lecturer and in the recent past was Director of Teaching and Learning in ScHARR at the University of Sheffield. He has developed, led and delivered Master of Public Health programmes at the University of Sheffield and Huddersfield and is involved in teaching on the MPH at the University of Chester. He has taught extensively at undergraduate and postgraduate level in Behavioural and Population Health Sciences, Principles of Public Health, Sociology of Public Health and Health Promotion, as well as Qualitative Research Methods.
As a Professor of Public Health, Professor Bissell works at the interface between medical sociology, health services research and public health. His early career focused on medicines usage, pharmacy practice, and new models of care in pharmacy and nursing. He has also published widely in the area of health inequalities and the social gradient in obesity and alcohol use. More recently, his work has focused on functional neurological conditions and in particular, the complex aetiology of non-epileptic attack disorder. He is currently a Co-Investigator on a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) project exploring the Impact of Interactive Electronic Devices (IEDs) in order to understand mechanisms of benefit and harm on young persons development, behaviours and health outcomes. He has supervised 25 PhD students to successful completion and has published over 120 peer reviewed articles. He has a google scholar H index of 43 with around 5700 citations. He has attracted significant income as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator, and his international reputation in these fields attracts regular invitations to present at national and international conferences.
BA, MA, PhD, FHEA, CMgr FCMI
Professor Bissell holds a BA (Hons) in Economics, Politics and Sociology from the University of Manchester and an MA (Econ) in Applied Social Research, also from the University of Manchester. Following these qualifications and after gaining further academic and professional experience, Professor Bissell returned, once again, to the University of Manchester to obtain his PhD from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2000.