Professor John Rodgers

Profile

I have a BSc Hons (Psychology), a PhD (Psychopharmacology) and a DSc (Behavioural Pharmacology) from Queen’s University Belfast.

My initial academic appointments (Lecturer; Senior Lecturer; Reader) were at the University of Bradford (1975-1989).

I first came to Leeds as a Reader in 1989 and, in 1997, was awarded a Personal Chair in Behavioural Pharmacology.

I am a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, an Editorial Board member for 5 international journals (Behavioural Brain Research; Behavioural Pharmacology; Neuropeptides; Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior; Physiology & Behavior), and a reviewer for numerous other journals and funding agencies.

I have published around 200 original research articles in peer review sources, co-edited two books and many special issues of leading journals, and contributed numerous chapters to specialist texts. My h-index currently stands at 67, with more than 16,200 citations (source:Google Scholar).

I formally retired at the end of August 2020, with the title of Emeritus Professor.

Research interests

My research interests lie in the area of behavioural pharmacology, also known as psychopharmacology.

Understanding drug effects on behaviour demands knowledge not only of outcome but also of process, ie the pathways to outcome. The rationale behind this philosophy lies in the fact that ostensibly identical outcomes can be produced by very different routes, only very few of which have any real biological significance.

For almost 4 decades, my research on the pharmacology of aggression, analgesia, anxiety and appetite has revolved around detailed behavioural profiling - whereby drug effects on the primary measure of interest are assessed in the context of concurrent effects on other components of the behavioural repertoire. Here, the key question concerns the behavioural selectivity of a given pharmacological intervention. For further details, please refer to my list of publications.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Psychology (QUB)
• PhD (QUB)
• DSc (QUB)

Professional memberships

• British Association for Psychopharmacology
• British Psychological Society
• European Behavioural Pharmacology Society

Student education

Throughout my academic career, I annually taught and assessed at all undergraduate levels. I also acted as External Examiner for undergraduate programmes at 4 other ranking UK universities as well as for the British Psychological Society.

I also annually taught at postgraduate level (DClinPsy), and successfully supervised 25 postgraduate research students (22 x PhD; 3 x MPhil). In addition, I have served as External Examiner for 35 research theses (MPhil; PhD; DSc) in the UK and abroad.