Rate My Professor Judith Sixsmith

Professor Judith Sixsmith is Professor of Health Sciences in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Dundee, where she has served since 2017. She also holds positions as Visiting Professor and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University in the School of Public Policy. Her academic background includes graduation in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Keele, studies in Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, and a PhD in Environmental Psychology. Previously, she was Professor of Public Health at the University of Northampton from 2011 to 2017, directing the Research Ageing Centre and the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, and held a Professorship in Adult Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University from 2005 to 2011, leading the Ageing Research Group. Sixsmith co-directs the Research Centre for Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) and the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at Dundee.

Her research focuses on ageing, inclusion and marginalisation, health and wellbeing, adult social care, healthy ageing, ageing in place and placemaking, palliative and end-of-life care, transdisciplinarity, qualitative methodology, and mixed methods. She participates in UK-wide and international partnerships addressing ageing-well-in-the-right-place and age-friendly cities and communities. Sixsmith has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and four books. Key publications include 'The meaning of home: An exploratory study of environmental experience' (1986, Journal of Environmental Psychology), cited over 800 times, 'The voices of older women in a disadvantaged community' (2006, Social Science & Medicine), and 'The End of Life: A Qualitative Study of the Perceptions of People Living in a Disadvantaged Inner-City Area' (2007). She has led projects such as Place-Age on placemaking with older adults towards age-friendly cities, Intergenerational age-friendly ecosystems for inclusive ageing, and Ageing well in urban environments. Awards include the Generations Working Together Excellence Award (2022), ISSR Interdisciplinary Incubator Grant (2023), and Intergenerational Age Friendly Ecosystems for Inclusive Ageing grant (2021). She teaches advanced qualitative methods, research in practice, co-directs the Masters in Palliative and End of Life Care, and supervises Master's and PhD students.