Rate My Professor Ian Walker

Professor Ian Walker is an environmental psychologist and Head of the School of Psychology at Swansea University. He specialises in psychology and behaviour related to transport, energy, and water, with research interests encompassing transport choices, traffic safety for vulnerable road users, energy literacy, water consumption, and systems literacy. Walker integrates psychological insights into multidisciplinary projects with engineers and architects, including his role as psychology lead for the VSimulators initiative developing motion simulators. His work extends to designing user-friendly in-home displays for energy and water usage and exploring sustainable active travel behaviours. He supervises PhD students on diverse topics such as smart wearable technologies for older adults, effects of populist rhetoric on political information processing, air quality perceptions, and selective exposure to behaviour change policies.

Walker's career includes previous positions at the University of Bath, where he served as Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean for Research and received the university's highest teaching award, and at the University of Surrey. He has secured substantial research funding from UKRI, H2020, Horizon Europe, and industry sources. Notable publications include the highly cited 'Drivers overtaking bicyclists: Objective data on the effects of riding position, helmet use, vehicle type and apparent gender' (2007), 'Context change and travel mode choice: Combining the habit discontinuity and self-activation hypotheses' (2008), and recent contributions like 'Motonormativity: how social norms hide a major public health hazard' (2023), 'Active travel to school: a longitudinal millennium cohort study of schooling outcomes' (2023), and studies on wind-induced vibrations in tall buildings and powerful showers' environmental impacts (2024-2025). His research influences policy through collaborations with UK and Welsh governments, Public Health Wales, energy firms, water companies, and transport bodies. Walker engages publicly via podcasts like Swansea University's Exploring Global Problems on traffic behaviour and media on cycling safety and motonormativity.