Marie is Professor of Exercise and Health in the Centre for Exercise Medicine, Physical Activity and Health (0.2 FTE). She is also Director of the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh (0.8 FTE). Marie graduated from Ulster with a BA Hons Sport & Leisure and PGCE in Physical Education and was awarded an MSc in Sports Science and a PhD in Exercise Physiology from Loughborough University. Marie has been at Ulster since 1992 serving as Head of the School of Sport and co-director of the Ulster Sports Academy from 2006-20014 and was the  foundation Dean of Postgraduate Research / Director of the Doctoral College from 2017-2022. Marie is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences (BASES) and the Higher Education Academy. She is president of the WHO Europe Health Enhancing Physical Activity Steering Committee (HEPA Europe) and former member of the Board of the International Society of Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH). She was a member of sub-panel 26 Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism for the Research Excellence Framework 2014 and chair of this sub-panel for REF2021. Marie’s research focuses on the effect of physical activity and exercise, in particular walking, on health and uses multidisciplinary approach which includes outcome measures ranging from the behavioural to the biochemical. Marie’s work has contributed to the evidence base underlying the current physical activity guidelines in the US, UK and Ireland and she was a co-author of the 2011 and 2019 physical activity guidelines by the four Chief Medical Officers. She is a member of the CMOs expert advisory group on physical activity and leading the preparation of the new UK Physical Activity Guidelines for adult.  Marie has over 140 peer-reviewed publications and is PI on a number of funded research projects including the Cross-border Healthcare Intervention Trials (CHITIN) funded Walking In ScHools (WISH) trial.