At heart, I am a physicist. The disadvantage of this is the desire to know a little about a lot, the opposite of an academic career where you end up knowing a lot about a little. I’ve had a varied career working on experimental mechanics, physics and engineering of sport, active travel and, more recently, measuring the impact of initiatives such as parkrun.
My book Advantage Play: Technologies that Changed Sporting History contains my reflections on our work and the evolution of sports technology more generally. Read on below if you want to know about me in more detail:
Early career
After my physics degree at Leeds University, about a million years ago, I decided that the physics of sport would be my thing and did a PhD at the University of Aston, sponsored by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. This led me to a research post in experimental mechanics and a lectureship at Sheffield University where I built up a sports engineering research group. In the 1990s, I established the journal Sports Engineering, the International Sports Engineering Association and the biannual International Conference on the Engineering of Sport.
I moved to Sheffield Hallam University in 2006, eventually setting up the Centre for Sports Engineering Research, the largest academic centre of its kind in the world. I have consulte for Callaway Golf in California, Adidas in Germany, and the International Tennis Federation in London.
I was Founding Director of the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, managing to secure £14m from the UK government to build it. Its grand vision is to improve the quality of life of UK citizens through physical activity for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and dementia.
Publications
I’ve published six edited books of conference proceedings, authored over 230 journal and conference papers, and written articles for New Scientist, Physics World, Ingenia and Times Higher Education.
You can read further information about my research publications on the Research tab, on my linkedin page, access them through Sheffield Hallam University’s publications page, Google Scholar, or directly from the journals’ webpages. I’ve tried to make papers open access wherever I can.
TV and Radio
I have appeared on television (BBC News, C4 News, BBC 2’s ‘Newsnight’), radio (BBC Radio 1, Radio 4 and Radio 5, as well as local radio) and created five films for the Royal Institution’s online TV channel in London. I was both scientific advisor and presenter for the hour-long documentaries ‘Equalizer’ and ‘Champions v Legends’, which appeared on CBC’s ‘The Nature of Things’ in 2016 and 2018; these investigated the science and technology of old equipment and compared ten modern Olympians to their peers from yesteryear.
From May 2026, I have a regular Wednesday slot at 2.30 pm on Track Radio with Sonja Mclaughlan where we talk about all things sports tech.
Awards
I was awarded a senior media fellowship by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in 2010 and a fellowship by the International Sports Engineering Association in 2012. I was identified in 2014 as one of the 10 most inspirational scientists in the UK by Research Councils UK (along with the likes of the amazing Jim Al-Khalili).
Rather surprisingly, I was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours List for services to sport.
Personal
I am a keen runner with distances from five kilometres to ultra-marathons: my personal best in a marathon is 3 hours 17 minutes. I am enthusiastic about the history and science of sport and regularly presents lecture to audiences as diverse as running clubs, science festivals, scientific institutions and international conferences – and to my family at the dinner table.
I am currently researching another book…
Professor Steve Haake OBE 