About

I joined the University of Derby in March 2013 as much for personal as professional reasons.  I was born and grew up in Derby and my family have a long connection with the city going back to 1918 when my great-great-grandfather came up from Dorset to manage a wholesale news-agency which, became A.J. Bussell’s and Sons based in John Street. Having been away from Derby for many years it was great to come back and support the city’s continuing development through the work of the University. 

I am Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean for the College of Science and Engineering and provide the executive leadership for the College which is comprised of the School of Built and Natural Environment, the School of Computing and Engineering, and the School of Human Sciences. The College is the University’s focal point for STEM teaching, research and innovation. The College’s research and innovation is led through our research centres, i.e. the Human Science Research Centre, the Data Science Research Centre, the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, the Rail Research and Innovation Centre and the Institute for Innovation and Sustainability in Engineering. The College is also home to the UK's Centre for Mineral Products which delivers teaching, research and innovation across the extractives sectors.  

Prior to joining the University of Derby, I led the Sport and Exercise Science team at Nottingham Trent University (2007-2013) having previously been a lecturer and senior lecture in Sport and Exercise Science at NTU (2000-2007). Outside of work, I continue to be involved in sport through my community coaching at Derby Rugby Football Club. 

Teaching responsibilities

As Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, I am primarily involved in the leadership of colleagues along with my College Executive Team, but I maintain my teaching commitments through PhD supervision and support of undergraduate and postgraduate project students. Periodically I deliver the occasional lecture and support practical work in my areas of expertise in the field of sport and exercise science for which I am grateful to my colleagues in the School of Human Sciences for allowing me into their modules!

Research interests

I am the Principal Investigator for the research and innovation project - Derby’s Urban Sustainable Transition (DUST) (£640k, 2020-2025) which is supported through the University’s first family endowment funding in memory of Professor Richard Horsley Osborne, a professor of human geography with a passion for economic regeneration and urban development across the East Midlands, especially of Derby. The project aims to develop an augmented reality fly-through of the city to demonstrate and showcase what the city could look like through embracing sustainable city design principles and through ‘greening the grey’.

This multidisciplinary project will bring together the University’s expertise in urban planning and architecture, biodiversity and sustainability, computer science and visualisation to create an immersive district-level representation of a future city design for Derby capitalising on its blueways, greenways, clean growth plans and post-Covid regeneration. Working with key stakeholders across the City, the DUST project will reimagineer Derby for a sustainable, vibrant, and resilient future.

I am the strategic lead for the University of Derby’s new Facility for OMICS Research in Metabolism (FORM) which is a £1.7m investment in biomedical research (2020-2025). Supported through local growth funding by the D2N2 LEP, FORM will bring together biomedical scientists, data scientists, and regional medi-tech industries to undertake research and innovation at molecular and cellular levels to better understand health conditions and diseases associated to changes in the metabolism of living organisms. The application of the omics-technologies will advance our understanding of metabolic pathways in order that we can take steps towards personalising medical care, treatments and interventions so improving health outcomes.

I was Principal Investigator for the Derby: a City on the Move research project (£1.06m, 2015-2019) funded through Sport England’s Get Healthy – Get Active programme (£437k) and consortium partners (£626k) including the University of Derby, Derby College Group, Derby County Community Trust and Derby City Council. The project reached out to c. 5,000 inactive citizens of Derby and successfully engaged them in physical activity interventions that saw 85% of participants sustain their increased physical activity levels at 3 months follow up. Core to the project's approach was to design and implement a person-centred approach to behaviour change that proved successful for inactive people to adopt pro-active lifestyle changes. The legacy of the project continues today through Derby’s physical activity strategy – Move More Derby.

Membership of professional bodies

• American College of Sport and Exercise Medicine (1998 – onwards)
• British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (1994 – onwards) 

Qualifications

• PhD Exercise Physiology (2000, Liverpool John Moores University) – thesis: Thermoregulation and peripheral blood flow response to exercise-induced hyperthermia
• PG Cert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (1998, Liverpool John Moores University)
• MSc Sport and Exercise Science (1995, Liverpool John Moores University) – thesis:  Time and distance motion analysis of work rates in elite canoeists
• BA (H) Sport Studies (1994, Northumbria University) – thesis: Breakpoints in lactate and ventilation thresholds – a methods comparison

Additional interests and activities

• Chair of Derby’s Climate Change Commission – working across Derby to reduce the city’s carbon emissions and move towards a more sustainable, low carbon, economy
• Member of Marketing Derby Board – representing the University of Derby and supporting inward investment to improve the vibrancy and economic prosperity of the city whilst preserving and celebrating the city’s heritage
• Member of the Toyota City Partnership Board – working with local government authorities (Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council and South Derbyshire District Council), Toyota Manufacturing UK, Derby County Football Club, and others, to strengthen and further the partnership between Derby and Derbyshire with Toyota City, Japan, for civic, economic and cultural gains

Recent publications

• Cavill, N., Richardson, D., Faghy, M., Bussell, C. and Rutter, H (2020).  Using system mapping to help plan and implement city-wide action to promote physical activity.  Journal of Public Health Research, 9(3), pp. 278-284.  DOI: 10.4081/jphr.2020.1759
• Elliott-sale, K.J. Hannah, R., Bussell, C., Parsons, A., Jones, P.G. and Sale, C. (2014).  A pilot study evaluating the effects of a 12 week exergaming programme on body mass, size and composition in postpartum females.  International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research, 2, pp. 131-138.  ISSN: 2321-3124
• Redwood-Brown A., Bussell, C., Bhara, H.S. (2012).  The impact of different standards of opponents on observed player performance in the English Premier League. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 7(2), pp. 341-355.  DOI: 10.4100/jhse.2012.72.01
• Hennis, P.J., Bussell C. and Darlison, M.G. (2010).  The lack of associations between alleles at the hypoxia-inducible factor 1A C1772T loci and responses to acute hypoxia.  Wilderness Environmental Medicine, 21(3), pp. 291-228.  DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2010.05.001
• Macleod, H., Bussell, C. and Sunderland, C. (2007). Time-motion analysis of elite women's field hockey, with particular reference to maximum intensity movement patterns. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. 7, 1-12.
• Babbar, R., Bussell C., Buckley, G. and Sivasubramaniam S. (2006).  Post-moderate exercise testing and clinical predictive value of ankle arm index measurements.  Pathophysiology, 13(1), pp. 15-21. DOI:  10.1016/j.pathophys.2005.10.002
• Sunderland, C., Bussell, C., Atkinson G., Alltree R., and Kates, M. (2006). Patterns of play and goals scored in international standard women’s field-hockey. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 6, 13-29.
• Bussell, C. and Cable, N.T. (2002).  Regional differences in the control of skin blood flow at forearm and calf sites. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(5). DOI: 10.1097/00005768-200205001-00172