ESMRN people

Members

Dr Debbie Palmer (Co-Network lead)

Debbie Palmer is lead for the Edinburgh Sports Medicine Research Network and Co-Director for the newly awarded Edinburgh-Bath UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), IOC Research Centre of Excellence.

Research focus:

• elite athlete health
• injury and illness risk and prevention
• longer-term consequences of sport-related injury

Dr Andrew Murray (Co-Network lead)

Andrew is the Group Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for the DP World Tour, Ladies European Tour, Challenge Tour, Legends Tour, Ryder Cup Europe and the European Tour Health and Performance Institutes. He is responsible for the worldwide strategy, operations and research of these organisations.

Dr Iain Murray (Co-Network lead)

Iain Murray is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Edinburgh Orthopaedics/Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. The focus of his clinical practice is sports injuries and joint preservation of the knee and hip. Iain serves as Associate Editor at the Bone and Joint Journal (BJJ) and Bone and Joint research (BJR) and is a member of the International Society for Cellular Therapies (ISCT) musculoskeletal committee and the Biologics Association.

Dr Stephanie Adams

Stephanie is a Research Fellow at our University's School of Health in Social Science. Her main area of research and expertise focuses on developing, delivering and evaluating health messaging and educational programming for a range of stakeholder groups, primarily on the topics of concussion and physical activity for health.

Dr Nick Clement

Nick Clement is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Edinburgh Orthopaedics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh with an interest in lower limb arthroplasty and hip fracture care.

Professor Dave Collins

Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Professor of Elite Performance at Dublin City University and Director at Grey Matters Performance Ltd.

Dave has over 450 peer-reviewed publications and 90 books/chapters.  He has worked with over 90 World or Olympic medallists plus professional teams and performers, including 10-year terms with the Chelsea FC Academy, SnowSports New Zealand, NISA and GB Weightlifting. He has also worked as a business and organisational adviser in various fields. Dave has coached to national level in three sports, is a 5^th Dan Karate, Director of the Rugby Coaches Association, Fellow of the Society of Martial Arts and BASES, Associate Fellow of the BPS and an ex-Royal Marine.

Dr Andrew Duckworth

Andrew Duckworth is a Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon in Edinburgh Orthopaedics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. 

Clinical interests: Trauma and upper limb surgery, with a focus on injuries around the elbow, wrist and hand.

Current research: Clinical trials in orthopaedic trauma, large-data and patient-reported outcome measures. 

Dr Niall Elliott 

Niall Elliott MBE is a Sports & Exercise Medicine Physician. He is Head of Sports Medicine at the sportscotland Institute of Sport and the Chief Medical Officer for the British Olympic Association. 

Research interests:

• the impact of infection and illness on athletic performance
• concussion in sport and education surrounding this
• athlete and practitioner mental wellbeing in the pressured environment of performance sport

Thomas Fallon

Tom is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist working within Lothian and competitive cycling. He is part of Cycling Ireland's medical advisory panel and is programme lead for their HP development programme.

Research interests:

• sports-related concussion
• injury epidemiology and prevention within cycling

Dr Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly is a Reader in Physical Activity for Health at the University of Edinburgh, where he has been based since August 2014. He is also a member of the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAHRC) and a Director for Paths for All, Scotland's national walking charity.

Research interests:

• the measurement of physical activity
• messaging and communication
• evaluation of physical activity interventions and policy

Linda Linton

Linda Linton is an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner at Edinburgh University, Sport and Exercise Medicine Clinic (FASIC) and in GP Practice, Midlothian. As well as working clinically in Sport and Exercise Medicine, she works as a first contact practitioner in GP practice, is Clinical Educator for Pre-Registration physiotherapy students, and lectures on Sport and Exercise Medicine at Edinburgh University.

Research interests:

• running-related injury
• injury prevention
• physical activity for health
• exercise in water 

Dr Alastair Nicol

Alastair Nicol is on the specialist register for Sport and Exercise Medicine with the GMC and is recognised as one of the leading and most experienced doctors in World Rugby.

Dr Stelios Psycharakis

Stelios is a Senior Lecturer in Biomechanics at the University of Edinburgh. As an ex-international-level swimmer, Stelios has a keen interest in the performance enhancement of elite swimmers, as well as on aquatic exercise for health and rehabilitation. He is the Chair of the European Network on swimming performance research.

Research interests:

• treatment and management of musculoskeletal disorders such as chronic low-back pain
• exercise for the prevention of falls in older adults

Dr Patrick Robinson

Patrick Robinson is a trauma and orthopaedic surgery registrar. He is the European Tour medical research fellow studying the biomechanics surrounding musculoskeletal injuries in elite golfers as well as the transmission and risks of COVID-19 on the European Tour. 

Research interests:

• sports-related injuries
• returning to activity after joint replacement

Dr Isla Shill

Isla Shill is Post-Doctoral Researcher in Injury Prevention. She currently holds a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Her main area of research expertise is injury and concussion prevention in youth sport and she has a background in sport injury epidemiology and biostatistics.

Kait Simpson

Kait's research is focused on identifying mental health risk factors in elite student-athletes.

Dr Tony Turner 

Tony Turner is a senior lecturer in exercise physiology in the Institute for Sport, Physical Education & Health Sciences (SPEHS). He is also the co-Director of Research, Knowledge Exchange & Impact for Moray House School of Education & Sport. Tony has applied experience as a physiologist working with performers in a range of sports, most recently in motor sport with partners ESP in the W Series programme and the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy.

Student members

You will find a list of PhD students in the Sports-Related Research Hub on the research students page of our website.

Research students