Robert J. West, PhD, is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of Tobacco Studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, UK. Professor West completed his PhD in Psychology in 1983 at University College London and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the area of smoking at the Institute of Psychiatry until 1985 when he took up a lecturing position at Royal Holloway, London University. He continued his research into smoking and also began researching traffic accident involvement. In 1991 Professor West joined St George's, University of London, where he was made professor in 1996. He took up his present position in 2003.
Professor West's research includes clinical trials of new smoking cessation treatments, studies of the acute effects of cigarette withdrawal and population studies of smoking patterns. He has published more than 500 scientific works and is co-author of the English and Scottish National Smoking Cessation Guidelines that provided the blueprint for the UK-wide network of smoking cessation services that are now an established part of the National Health Service. He is author of the book, 'Theory of Addiction'.
Professor West is co-director of the NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, a member of the Board of Trustees of QUIT, a member of the Editorial Board of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco/WHO Tobacco Treatment Database, a member of the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Collaboration Tobacco Review Group, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction. He is also Past-President of the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco.
