Mark is a Professor of Psychobiology and is registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Health Psychologist. Mark is the lead for the Health & Wellbeing research cluster and is a member of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee in the Department of Psychology. He also holds a visiting fellowship at the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University Melbourne.

Following completion of his PhD in Psychoneuroimmunology (Plymouth University), Mark held several post-doctoral positions within the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience & Endocrinology, and the Departments of Primary Care and Social Medicine at Bristol University, funded by research council and medical charities.  Mark then held the position of Investigator Scientist at the Medical Research Council exploring the impact of psychological factors on wound healing in diabetes patients, before positions of Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Associate Professor at Northumbria University Newcastle. 

Mark is a specialist in the psychobiological causes and consequences of stress and much of his research concerns exploring the psychobiological pathways through which psychological (e.g., stress) and behavioural (e.g., illicit drug use, lifestyle) factors can lead to deleterious effects on aspects of health, well-being and performance.  In other words, how stress gets inside the body and why it has different effects on different people. He has worked with a range of clinical (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, IBS, chronic fatigue), occupational (e.g., medical professionals, firefighters, frontline care staff, prison officers, police force), sports (e.g., elite rowers, rugby and football teams), and healthy populations, and has a particular interest in individuals experiencing chronic stress (e.g., parent carers and careworkers of individuals with behaviours that challenge). His research involves a range of psychological and biological (nervous, endocrine and immune systems) methods, and he has developed novel, ecologically valid techniques for assessing the basal functioning and acute activation of psychobiological pathways in ambulatory and laboratory settings. Many of the populations he works with would benefit from participation in stress-reduction interventions; however, their situations often make it difficult to participate or maximise their benefits.  Mark’s work also involves the development of bespoke interventions that are more easily accessible by individuals experiencing chronic stress.