Appointment believed to be a world-first

Edinburgh Napier has appointed Dr Adrian Davis to the groundbreaking position of Professor of Transport & Health.

Professor Davis comes to the post – believed to be a world-first – with a track record of more than 30 years work in helping to develop and grow this inter-disciplinary field.

Author of the British Medical Association’s first report on road transport and health, back in 1997, a founding Editor of the academic Journal of Transport & Health, and adviser to the World Health Organisation, he joins a strong team of researchers across Edinburgh Napier.

Based in Scotland’s largest academic transport group – the Transport Research Institute – led by Professor Tom Rye, Professor Davis will be seeking to raise awareness and understanding of the many connections between road transport and health.

During 2018/19, Professor Davis will be focusing on a series of transport and health related topics – from the language we use to describe road collisions and the seeming acceptance of these as everyday events to the quality of the air in our towns and cities and inequalities in the distribution of transport health impacts.

Professor Davis said: “I relish the opportunity to help accelerate the science, translation and collaboration on road transport & health. In particular I hope to assist Scotland’s practitioners in the fields of transport planning and public health in achieving more through greater understanding and the synergies that then arise from greater collaboration.”

Professor Tom Rye, Director of the Transport Research Institute, said: “We are very pleased to have created what we believe to be a world-first in this cross-disciplinary post, and very happy indeed to welcome Adrian to the TRI team.

“The links between transport and health are strong and irrefutable and of increasing interest to policy makers, and with Adrian’s appointment we are well-positioned to make an important contribution to developing new knowledge in the area, and applying it.”