Helen Dawes

World-leading Movement expert joins University of Exeter

An expert in Movement Science has just joined the University of Exeter.

Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Helen Dawes originally trained as a Physiotherapist and then moved to an Academic position at Oxford Brookes University where she was the founder and Director of the Movement Science, Clinical Exercise and Rehabilitation Groups. Her focus is on translating technologies to deliver and evaluate movement, exercise and other interventional outcomes to support active living, improve disease symptoms and prevent frailty. She has a particular focus on neurological disorders in both adults and children across the lifespan including stroke, neurodegenerative conditions and developmental disorders of coordination.  

She was recently highlighted as one of the nation’s 100 lifesavers as part of the Universities “Made at Uni campaign”, for her research with Robin Buttery, a Parkinson’s patient who she helped to row the Indian Ocean (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOYs1hUpQRg).  

Her research is multidisciplinary, with a global reach, and she has brought an international team with her. Helen’s role will include developing innovative, scalable and bespoke technologies to improve health and wellbeing. 

She said: “I am delighted and honoured to be able to join the University of Exeter, which has an outstanding reputation for being at the forefront of Rehabilitation research. I am especially enthusiastic to work with new teams here, to learn new skills and apply them to Clinical Rehabilitation for use in community and home environments, and clinical trials.”

Sallie Lamb, Associate Dean for Research & Mireille Gillings Professor of Health Innovation at the University of Exeter, said: “We are delighted to welcome Helen to the University of Exeter. She will bring a great depth of knowledge on rehabilitation combined with skills in cutting edge technologies including mobile brain scanning, measuring muscle activity and movement. These will all help in our quest to improve quality of life for people living with chronic conditions.”

Date: 19 January 2022