The School has appointed three new Fellows and Chairs from among the world’s best researchers to help change the way the world works.
The School of Social Policy and Society has welcomed three new academics as part of the University of Birmingham’s 125th anniversary Fellows and Chairs.
The three academics who have joined the School are Chairs Amy Grove and Richard Hastings, and Fellow Mary Zhang.
Their appointments are part of the successful first phase of a campaign to recruit 125 new Fellows and Chairs in celebration of the University’s 125th anniversary in 2025. The new academics will help build strength in key research areas, driving the University’s ambition to become a Top 50 global university. The campaign seeks diverse talent from among the world’s best researchers to help change the way the world works.
Amy Grove is Professor of Implementation Science, an NIHR Advanced Fellow and Honorary Professor, University Hospitals Coventry, and Warwickshire. As a Chartered Psychologist Professor Grove leads a programme of research to evaluate health care interventions on behalf of a range of policymakers including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Professor Grove is Director of an NIHR Technology Assessment Review team and NIHR Evidence Synthesis Group. At Birmingham, Professor Grove will run a newly formed research group, the Birmingham Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science (BCEIS).
Richard Hastings is Professor of Psychology, Health, and Social Care. He has joined from the University of Warwick, where he was Cerebra Chair of Family Research and the Director of the Centre for Research in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. A highly citied researcher specialising in intellectual and developmental disabilities, he is rated seventh globally for whole career impact in the Stanford University analysis of scientific citation data organised by sub-field and has received three international awards for his research. Professor Hastings will lead the new Intellectual Disabilities Research Institute (IDRIS).
Dr Mary Zhang, Associate Professor of International Social Policy joins from the University of Oxford where she lectured in Quantitative Research Methods. Her work, which focuses on sustainable development, inequalities, climate change and poverty, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, receives funding from ESRC, IDRC, NERC, UKRI, UNICEF.
Head of the School of Social Policy and Society, Professor Nicola Gale, said: "We are hugely excited to be welcoming three world-leading scholars to the School, alongside their research teams. All three have made significant contributions towards our School’s shared purpose ‘to understand the world and to work collaboratively to make it better’. Their expertise complements existing strengths in the School around health and social care, research methodology and global social policy."
Learn more about the anniversary researchers by visiting the 125th Anniversary Fellows and Chairs directory.
Associate Professor
School of Social Policy
Mary joined the University of Birmingham as a 125th Anniversary Fellow and Associate Professor of International Social Policy in 2024
125th Anniversary Chair, and Professor of Psychology Health and Social Care
School of Social Policy
Richard Hastings is an internationally recognised researcher in the field of intellectual disabilities, special education, and more broadly in youth mental health.
125th Anniversary Chair
School of Social Policy
Amy is a Psychologist and Professor of Implementation Science. As a leading methodologist, she evaluates health technology and innovation to directly impact health service design and delivery
