Professor Brandon Hamber is John Hume & Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University. He is also a member of the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University. Professor Hamber is the Director of Innovation at TechEthics, that harnesses technology for peacebuilding.

Hamber was born in South Africa and currently lives in Belfast. In South Africa he trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and holds a Ph.D. from the Ulster University. Prior to moving to Northern Ireland, he co-ordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg. He co-ordinated the Centre's work focusing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He has undertaken research and consultancy work, and participated in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Liberia, Mozambique, Bosnia, Colombia, the Basque Country and Sierra Leone, among others.

Professor Hamber has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the psychological implications of political violence, masculinities in transition and the process of transition and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland and abroad. He has published 35 book chapters and 44 scientific journal articles, and 7 books. He was a regular columnist for Polity and Engineering News writing the column Look South between 2004 and 2012 producing 113 articles. His most recent book is Masculinities and Queer Perspectives in Transitional Justice with co-editors Philipp Schulz and Heleen Touquet published by Routledge in 2024.

In 2010-2013 he was a Mellon Distinguished Visiting Scholar at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Professor Hamber is the Course Director of the MSc Peace and Conflict Studies programme at Ulster University. Professor Hamber has lectured and taught widely, including at the Geneva Academy (Switzerland), The International Trauma Studies Programme at Colombia University (New York) and the Post-War and Reconstruction Unit, University of York, among many others. He has supervised 18 PhD and 66 MSc students to completion.

He has been awarded The Paul Harris medal for contributions to peace by Rotary (2013), and was listed as one of the Top 100: The most influential people in armed violence reduction by the Action on Armed Violence Network (2013/2014).

Professor Hamber also serves on the boards of Healing Through Remembering (Northern Ireland), Impunity Watch (Netherlands), The Oxford Group (Initiative of Change UK) and is a Trustee of Conflict Textiles.