Nicola Shelton

Professor Nicola Shelton is a Professor of Population Health at University College London (UCL), affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health. She leads the Health and Social Surveys Research Group and serves as Principal Investigator of CeLSIUS, the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support for the ONS Longitudinal Study. Her research focuses on health geography, health surveillance, and the use of large datasets to study alcohol consumption, physical activity, occupational health, and aging populations.

Professor Shelton holds a PhD from the University of Liverpool (2000), a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Wales, Bangor (1992), and a BSc (Hons) Open from UCL (1991). She has held academic roles at UCL since 2002, progressing from Research Fellow to her current 80% FTE professorship. She founded UCL's BSc in Population Health (2013–2019) and the MSci Population Health Sciences program (2024–present).

Her research interests span spatial epidemiology, health inequalities, and the intersections of social, environmental, and occupational factors with health outcomes. Notable projects include analyzing alcohol consumption patterns, workplace health, and the impact of socioeconomic deprivation on health outcomes and labor market transitions. Her work often utilizes large-scale longitudinal datasets, contributing to evidence-based policy development.

Recent research highlights include studies on greenspace exposure and mental health, neurodivergence and metabolic risk, and the development of deprivation indices linking to health outcomes. She has published extensively on aging populations, including work on disability-free life expectancy and the health implications of extended working lives.

Professor Shelton collaborates widely, with projects addressing food insecurity, air pollution mapping, and the implementation of physically active education interventions in schools. Her contributions have informed public health policies and academic frameworks, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to population health challenges.