Helen Hughes

Dr. Helen Hughes is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School where she serves as Director of the Behaviour Lab and previously as Academic Lead for Internships. A Chartered Occupational Psychologist, her interdisciplinary research focuses on workplace relationships, graduate employability, socio-technical systems, and applied methodologies including computer simulation and social network analysis.

Her research examines team collaboration in complex environments, graduate transitions to the workplace, and job design. She has secured £1.5m in research funding from ESRC, Innovate UK, and industry partners including Rolls-Royce, NHS, and KPMG.

Awards include the 2017 Liberty Mutual Award for contributions to ergonomics, the 2019 University of Leeds Teaching Excellence Award, and the Faculty Mentor Award. She contributes to policy discussions with UK government departments and organizations including HSE and QAA.

As a Certified Business Educator, she developed the MSc Organizational Psychology program and leads internship strategy. She supervises postgraduate research on workplace behaviors and career transitions.