Dr Clare Llewellyn

Associate Professor

Behavioural Science and Health

Institute of Epidemiology & Health

Joined UCL: 1st Apr 2013

Research summary

Clare's primary research interest is to understand how genes and the environment interact to promote excessive weight gain, with a focus on ‘obesogenic’ behaviours including eating behaviour and sleep. She leads the Gemini Study, the largest population-based birth cohort of twins ever set up to study genetic and environmental contributions to early life growth. She is leading a study using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to advance understanding of weight variation in older adults; and is involved in a number of projects on appetite and food choice in young adults, using data from the Twins Early Development Study. She was recently awarded a Cancer Research UK / BUPA Innovation grant as Principal Investigator, which aims to develop visual and language 'toolkits' to support healthcare professionals in initiating and managing conversations with parents about their child’s weight status.

Teaching summary

MSc in Health Psychology

Clare is a course convenor for UCL's MSc in Health Psychology. This taught course (around 45 students per year) seeks to educate and help students become well-rounded research practitioners with the majority of our post-graduates going on to higher research degrees or employment in the wider health sector. External as well as internal teaching encompasses a variety of topics focusing both on methodological as well as research content (meta-analyses, epidemiology, obesity prevention and management). Clare leads two modules, 'Chronic illness from the Health Psychology perspective' and 'Advanced qualitative and quantitative research methods'.

Other courses

BSc in Population Health Sciences; module lead for 'Health Psychology'

MSc Paediatrics and Child Health; lecturer

MSc in Eating Disorders and Clinical Nutrition; lecturer

MSc in Clinical and Public Health Nutrition; lecturer

Supervision

Clare provides research supervision for 6 PhD students in the areas of: psychology; behaviour genetics; nutritional epidemiology; genetic epidemiology; public health. She also supervises MSc students.

Education

University College London: Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 2011
University College London: Other higher degree, Master of Science | 2007
London Metropolitan University: Other Postgraduate qualification (including professional), Graduate Diploma | 2006
University of Oxford: Other higher degree, Master of Arts | 2000

Biography

Clare Llewellyn is Associate Professor of Obesity, and co-leader of the Obesity research group in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health, part of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care in the Faculty of Population Health Sciences. After graduating from the University of Oxford in 2000 she had an initial career in the pharmaceutical industry completing GlaxoSmithKline's Commercial Management Scheme, before retraining as a psychologist. In 2007 she was awarded an MRC Advanced Masters studentship for an MSc in Health Psychology at UCL, for which she gained a distinction. She went on to complete an ESRC/MRC-funded PhD in 2011 on the genetic epidemiology of appetite and growth in early life, under the supervision of Professor Jane Wardle at UCL. Following two postdoctoral positions - with Professor Wardle at UCL, and Professor Robert Plomin at KCL's Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre - she took up her first academic position as lecturer at UCL in 2013. Clare is an honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, at the University of Liverpool. Clare is also an elected trustee for the UK Association for the Study of Obesity; Europe's largest national obesity science organisation, and the UK's foremost charitable organisation dedicated to the understanding, prevention and treatment of obesity. She established and leads the first London Regional Group for the ASO.