Organizers
The summer short course is being organized in collaboration between the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL. Between them, these research groups have made seminal contributions to understanding links between positive mental well-being and physical health.
The Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London is dedicated to research on how human behaviour impacts health and health outcomes. It is an interdisciplinary academic department involving specialists in health psychology, epidemiology, public health, biology, nutrition, exercise science, clinical medicine and aging. The primary focus is on health behaviors (tobacco use, alcohol, physical activity, diet), social factors, and psychobiological processes relevant to cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cognitive decline. Our research relates to prevention, early detection of long-term conditions, and the support of people with illnesses such as cancer and dementia. The Department houses key longitudinal population cohort studies such as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).
Work on social assets, mental health well-being and physical health has been an emerging focus of research over the past 15 years. This is includes epidemiological research into associations between different aspects of positive mental well-being and mortality, studies of the biological and behavioural processes linking mental well-being with physical disease risk, and intervention studies. The Department houses the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health, and has an emerging focus on social prescribing. UCL provides a complementary perspective to the Harvard group on this field.
The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. School of Public Health seeks to understand and intervene on the social determinants of health and health equity across the life-course. This is achieved through research identifying the social and behavioral determinants of health, development and evaluation of interventions and policies leading to the improvement of population health, and the preparation of professionals and researchers who will fill leadership positions in advocacy and public service. The department’s educational mission is to train both scholars and practitioners: scholars whose research will illuminate basic social determinants of health and who will identify and test innovative social policy and service interventions; practitioners who are skilled in designing, implementing, and evaluating health-enhancing interventions in action settings.
​
Recently, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health identified the promotion of well-being as one of its key frontiers of focus. This new course highlights the importance of identifying new ways to measure and foster well-being, encouraging participants to explore and define the linkages between health and how we feel, interact, and live.
Statement from the Deans of UCL and
Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health
On behalf of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and University College London, we are delighted to support this joint teaching initiative exploring the links between emotional well-being and population health. Psychosocial factors play a role in many of the leading causes of death around the world. While much attention has been paid to understanding how psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) contributes to disease development, work pioneered by leading researchers at our institutions has shown that positive emotional well-being may uniquely contribute to maintaining good health and increasing longevity. This short course is designed to bring faculty from our institutions together to introduce the next generation of scholars to the cutting-edge science that sits at the nexus of epidemiology, social science, psychology, and medicine with the goal of stimulating novel, interdisciplinary work that supports a healthier tomorrow for generations to come.
Ibrahim Abubakar, Dean, Faculty of Population Health Sciences, UCL
Andrea Baccarelli, Dean,
Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health
Michelle A. Williams, Dean,
Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health
COURSE LEADERS
.jpg)
​
​
Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology
Behavioural Science and Health
University College London
Andrew Steptoe is professor of psychology and epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL, and is Director of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. He was the British Heart Foundation professor of psychology at UCL from 2000-2016, and also served as Director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care (2011-2017), and Head of Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (2017-2024). He is a Past-President of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine and is a fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine, the Academia Europaea, and the Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include psychosocial aspects of aging, links between mental and physical health, childhood obesity, health behaviour change, and the psychobiology of stress.
​
​
Professor of Social and Behavioral Science
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
​
Laura Kubzansky is professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She was a founding director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for the Health and Happiness and a founding co-director of the JPB Environmental Health Fellows. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Dr. Kubzansky has published extensively on the role of psychological and social factors in health. She also conducts research on whether stress, emotion, and other psychological factors help to explain the relationship between social status and health. Other research projects and interests, include a) biological mechanisms linking emotions, social relationships, and health; b) relationships between early childhood environments, resilience, and healthy aging; and; c) how psychosocial stress or assets may interact with toxic environmental exposures (e.g., lead, air pollution) to influence health.
2025 TEACHING FACULTY
Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology | Head of Social Biobehavioural Research Group
Associate Professor | Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion
University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing
Dr Jeffrey Huffman
Associate Professor of Psychiatry | Director, Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program
Harvard Medical School | Mass General Hospital
Dr Peter James
Associate Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
University of California Davis School of Medicine
Dr Caspar Kaiser
Assistant Professor | Research Fellow
Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School | Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Centre
Dr Murray Mittleman
Professor of Epidemiology | Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal
More Coming Soon...
​
​