Stuart Biddle, PhD, is a research professor at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) in Australia where he was previously Director of the Centre for Health Research. He has held academic positions at three universities in the UK (Staffordshire, Exeter, Loughborough), two in Australia (Victoria University, UniSQ), and one in Finland (Jyvaskyla). At Loughborough, he was Professor and Head of the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences. Loughborough is consistently at the top of international rankings for sport-related subjects.

Professor Biddle graduated with a B.Ed. degree in Physical Education from Loughborough in 1977, a MSc degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, in 1979, and a PhD in Psychology from Keele University, UK, in 1988. He has undertaken research and teaching over a 40+ year career. 

His research is cited extensively. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, was ranked 19 th all-time worldwide for career-long citation impact in Sport Sciences and, in 2022, 31 st in the world for Public Health. He is ranked 173 rd in the world for psychology citations and was the top researcher in Health and Medical Sciences for both ‘Physical Education & Sports Medicine’ and ‘Public Health’ in The Australian’s Research Magazine, in November 2022. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in 2018. Research funding has been secured in the UK through the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Medical Research Council, and the National Institute for Health Research, and in Australia with the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council. 

Professor Biddle’s research has been in motivational aspects of physical activity, including in the settings of physical education and health-related exercise, and he has published extensively using a number of social psychological theories. His research later became more focussed on public health through the study of sedentary behaviour when he became one of the first to receive funding for this topic in 2000. His publications have addressed wider issues of sedentary behaviour and health outcomes, and interventions to modify high levels of sedentary time, such as workplace sitting. He has authored a number of highly cited systematic reviews on sedentary behaviour over the past 20 years and his work has been published in journals such as the British Medical Journal, Nature Human Behaviour, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and British Journal of Social Psychology. He has also published on physical activity and mental health. His co-authored textbook ‘Psychology of Physical Activity’ was first published in 1991 and was revised again in 2021. He has also edited five academic books, co-authored/edited four professional books for sports practitioners, and edited a book for physical educators. 

Stuart has contributed to academic publishing through his work with journals. He was the Founding Editor of the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, now the leading journal in this field, has been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Sports Sciences, and is an active member of several editorial boards, including for the International Journal for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, and Preventive Medicine. 

Alongside his research, Professor Biddle has been involved a great deal in the production of national and international physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines, including the first guidelines in England for young people in 1998 where he was joint academic lead. Subsequently, he has led sedentary behaviour guidelines in the UK and Australia and was a member of the WHO Guideline Development Group in 2020.     

Contributions to international academic societies include being a Past-President of the European Federation for the Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity (FEPSAC), and the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA); he was Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European College of Sports Science. He is a Fellow of ISBNPA, the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, and The UK’s Association for Physical Education. He was awarded the first ‘Honorary Membership’ of FEPSAC “for rendering outstanding service to sport and exercise psychology in Europe”. Stuart led the first Pan-European masters’ degree in sport and exercise psychology in the 1990s, involving 13 universities from 11 European countries, including Greece. 

Professor Biddle has received a number of awards, including ‘Distinguished International Scholar’ from the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (US, 1998), and the ‘Distinguished Contribution to Sport & Exercise Psychology’ award from the British Psychological Society (2010). He has held Honorary positions at the University of Nottingham, University of Queensland, and Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Melbourne, Australia). In 2012, he was the E.W. Barker Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 

Professor Biddle has supervised nearly 50 students to successful completion of PhDs, including a number of highly regarded Greek scholars. The latter include Marios Goudas, Symeon Vlachopoulos, Nikolaos Ntoumanis, Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, Manolis Georgiadis, and the late Nikolaos Chatzisarantis. He has supervised PhD candidates from 20 countries, with nearly one-third progressing to full professorships. These include Guy Faulkner (University of British Columbia, Canada), Martin Hagger (University of California, Merced, US), and John Wang (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).

Ken is Emeritus Professor of Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Bristol and at the age of 75 he still undertakes review work for academic journals and serves on several national grant awarding bodies for medical and health sciences projects including in the UK.

In 1967 he chose to study geology and geography for his first degree at King’s College, London. This was followed by a teaching certificate at Loughborough University where he could combine his love of sport and geography. 

In the 1970s he eventually took a job as a secondary school physical education teacher and this is where he discovered he had a real interest in exercise and its relationship with health. He soon realised he needed to learn much more and went to Kansas State University where he studied in 1981 with the expert - Professor Charles Corbin where he completed an MSc in Exercise Science. Now better equipped he returned to his school in England and with like- minded colleagues was able to pioneer a new health-related PE curriculum. His early writing was aimed at helping PE teachers developed a health focus in their work. This also started a writing collaboration with lifelong colleague and friend, Professor Biddle. 

After two years, his urge to learn more took him to Arizona State where he gained his PhD in 1987. His exposure to social psychology nurtured a deep interest in human motivation   3 and the role played by self-esteem in motivation and mental health. His dissertation involved the development of a new psychological instrument – The Physical Self-Perception Profile. The work was awarded the USA Sports Psychology Academy Dissertation of the Year Award in 1988 for its psychometric rigour and strong theoretical base. The instrument has been translated into at least 10 languages, has been cited in over 2200 academic papers is still widely used today, and features on most sport science curricula. 

In 1989, Ken wished to bring his growing family back to the UK and it was at Exeter University where his partnership with Professor Biddle flourished. He assisted Stuart in the development and delivery of the first European Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology . This was the start of a long and rewarding relationship with international students and in particular those from Greece, leading to many memorable conference visits most involving flawed attempts at traditional Greek dancing after too many beers. 

In 1997 Ken published two books The physical self. From motivation to well-being and in 2000 with Stuart Biddle as co-editor Physical activity and psychological well-being.

In 1999 he was appointed as the first Professor of Exercise and Health Sciences at Bristol University where he developed the first Masters in Exercise, Nutrition and Health in the UK in an increasingly highly ranked research focussed postgraduate department. During his time there he was co-investigator on grants worth more than £6 million. Much of his recent work has been evaluating through pragmatic randomised controlled trials the impact of projects aimed at helping older adults become more active and benefit their health. Over the years he has contributed 40 book chapters and published almost 400 academic or professional papers with 34000 citations of his work. A highlight for him was co-authoring two research papers in 2022 in the Lancet. It took 40 years from his first article for PE teachers!

In the meantime, in order to further the case for exercise, Ken has served on many UK government advisory boards and committees including the Study of Obesity executive committee, the British Nutrition Foundation, and in 2004 was the Senior Scientific Editor for the first Chief Medical Officer’s report on Physical activity and Public Health. Over the years he has taught thousands of masters students and has been advisor to over 30 PhD students, 50% of whom are now full professors themselves. 

His work has been widely recognised with a Fellowship by Distinction of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, UK and Fellowships of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, and UK Physical Education Association. He is an International Fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and in 2014 was made an Alumni Fellow of the College of Human Ecology Kansas State University where he studied in 1981. In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Recently he was declared a Research Leader for the field of Social   4 Science and Humanities where he is ranked 32 nd in the UK according to his academic influence (Research.com). 

As a young man, he had always been a keen musician, playing piano and drums. Before settling down for a serious career, he spent six years as a professional musician, working on cruise ships and in nightclubs and dance halls. When asked about his career, Ken says that he feels really fortunate to have had the opportunity to try to influence the lives and careers of so many wonderful young people and at the same time making a contribution to the science that has helped make the case for a more active and healthy society. I have been a lucky man in my life!