Jonathan Smith

Professor Jonathan Smith holds a Chair in Psychology at Birkbeck University of London's School of Psychological Sciences, where he leads the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Research Group (IPARG) and serves as Deputy Director of the Birkbeck Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Mental Health. His academic journey commenced with a BA from the University of Cambridge, followed by an MSc from the University of Sussex, and culminated in a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Smith's research program centers on advancing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a methodology for exploring health and illness experiences. His work spans critical domains including mental health interventions for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, chronic pain management, involuntary childlessness, and cross-cultural mental health adaptations. Current projects include NIHR-funded studies on epilepsy interventions, longitudinal bipolar disorder research, and international collaborations examining mental health during India's COVID-19 response.

His publication trajectory reveals consistent methodological innovation in qualitative health psychology, with recent work emphasizing longitudinal IPA applications to temporal dimensions of health conditions. Key thematic clusters include mental health service development, embodiment in chronic conditions, and cross-cultural adaptation of psychological interventions.

Smith's scholarly contributions have been recognized through:

• Honorary Fellowship of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS)

He actively supervises five doctoral researchers while having successfully guided nine PhD candidates to completion since 2013. His research is supported by NIHR funding and institutional grants focused on mental health intervention development and qualitative methodology refinement.

As head of IPARG, Smith maintains the primary international IPA resource hub (ipa.bbk.ac.uk) and coordinates national/international IPA networks, including the Health and Lived Experience (HALE) research cluster which fosters interdisciplinary mental health research.