David is a behavioural scientist who has established a reputation as a global leader in understanding how data and ubiquitous technologies are changing the way we conduct research and the way we live in the digital age. Working at the intersection of psychology and data science, his research has been published in world-leading psychology, medical, public health, computer science and communication journals with results often re-appearing on radio and television.

His primary focus has been on the descriptive or predictive value of new and emerging forms of data for understanding the dynamics of behaviour in the digital age. He has explored the psychological value and impacts of technology as it relates to privacy, security, health, and well-being. This includes spearheading innovative research practices alongside the analysis of digital data, which continues to advance the discipline of psychology and the wider academic community. Research projects have involved experiments in labs, large-scale surveys, focus groups, and the use of smartphones to collect data ‘in the wild’. Other award-winning research pioneered data-linkage methodologies using health service data, which explored the importance of patient behaviour across the lifespan, morbidity and mortality outcomes.

David's research has been supported by research councils, government agencies, and industry partners. He has collaborated with civil servants, government analysts, NHS staff, patients, artists, technology entrepreneurs, and members of the public and has provided advice and research reports to large and small companies, as well as to UKRI, the UK, and Scottish governments. This often emphasises where digital transformations can deliver positive social, economic, and industrial impacts.

Beacon: Value of data

Psychology Sensor Lab

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST)

National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN)

The Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust Engagement NetworkPlus (SPRITE+)

Healthy Later Living Network 

LEAP - A Digital Health Hub for the South West 

Developing interventions to reduce "missingness" in healthcare

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security (College of Supervisors)

Blog ("Misc")

Open Research Steering Group - Member

Research Culture Steering Group - Member

Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee - Chair

Academic Ethics and Integrity Committee - Member

Healthy Later Living Network – Academic Member

David is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and has taught extensively at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This includes the development and delivery of MSc and BSc programs that often bridge the gap between management, psychology, and computational social science. Where relevant, he aims to integrate and highlight the importance of open science practices across teaching and research. This often reveals a variety of methodological, statistical, and systematic issues that impair the robustness of scientific claims we encounter every day.

Underpinning much of his teaching is the supervision and mentoring of research students and staff. Having published papers with undergraduate and postgraduate students, he has also co-authored teaching materials. This includes a number of papers and online resources that help others develop statistical resources for their own teaching purposes (Ellis & Merdian, 2018; Ellis & Merdian, 2015). The earlier reference appeared as part of a Research Topic in Frontiers in Psychology entitled: Research methods pedagogy: Engaging students in research methods and statistics.

Graduates or undergraduates who wish to undertake research in his lab or in conjunction with associated groups are welcome to contact David directly.