About
Jamie Pearce is Professor of Health Geography at the University of Edinburgh's School of Geosciences and serves as Dean of Postgraduate Research for the College of Science & Engineering. He is Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Environment, Society & Health (CRESH) and holds editorial positions as Senior Editor of Social Science & Medicine and co-Editor-in-Chief of Wellbeing, Space & Society.
His educational background includes a PhD from the University of St Andrews (2003), an MSc from the University of Leicester (1997), and a BSc from Durham University (1996).
Pearce's research focuses on social, political and environmental processes affecting social and spatial inequalities in health. He has made significant contributions to understanding how place influences health outcomes and behaviors including smoking status, physical activity, and obesity. His work employs geographical approaches to examine health inequalities through spatial analysis and longitudinal studies.
His recent publications reveal a strong focus on tobacco and alcohol policy, neighborhood effects on health, multimorbidity in aging populations, and the relationship between urban environments and health outcomes. His research increasingly incorporates computational methods like topic modeling to analyze neighborhood effects.
- Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2021)
- Fellow Royal Society of Arts (2015)
- Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh (2022)
- Visiting Distinguished Professor (2017)
- Visiting Erskine Fellowship (2024)
As Dean of Postgraduate Research, Pearce oversees doctoral training across the College of Science & Engineering. His current research projects include investigating urban greenery effects on geriatric mental health, studying retail availability of nicotine products in Scotland, and examining the transition to net-zero housing. He leads the Centre for Research on Environment, Society & Health, which brings together researchers from Edinburgh and Glasgow to study environmental influences on population health.
