My personal research interest is in the changes in post World War Two public health policy. Topic based research includes smoking policy;drug policy (illicit); alcohol policy; the role of the media;HIV/AIDS policy ;and the relationship between evidence, incuding history , and policy. The History Centre which I head works on these issues across a variety of different subject areas.

The Centre was initially funded by  Wellcome Trust 5 year awards which also fund aspects of my own research on public health and  on the role of expertise in policy making.

I  have been work package leader for an EU framework 7 programme ALICE-RAP on addiction and lifestyles which ended in March 2016.We  researched addiction through the ages, specifically cross national differences in the terminology of addiction from the mid nineteenth century ;and the role of international agencies such as WHO and EMCDDA in establishing core concepts.A book has just been published based on this research.--: eds Hellman,Berridge Duke and Mold,Concepts of Addictive substances across time and place (OUP,2016)

I am now taking part in the Wellcome Trust funded programme of research on 'Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000' led by Professor Hilary Marland of the University of Warwick and Dr Catherine Cox of University College Dublin. The LSHTM research,which I supervise, is examining the recent history of HIV/AIDS in prisons in England and Ireland.