Biography

Leonie completed her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London. Following her PhD, Leonie worked as Research Associate at the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) and the Tobacco Research Group at University College London. She joined the National Addictions Centre in 2013 and in 2015 became a Cancer Research UK (CRUK)/BUPA Foundation Fellow.

Research

Leonie has conducted research into smoking cessation in clinical practice, its effectiveness and ways to improve it. Currently, one area of research is smoking and mental health, the area of her Fellowship. This includes projects to assess population data (in collaboration with the Smoking Toolkit Study), evaluations of clinical practice and the effectiveness of interventions.

A second area of research is vaping (e-cigarettes); the Nicotine Research Group has been conducting a unique longitudinal survey and Leonie has been awarded grants for additional waves. Leonie was also a co-author of a 2015 Public Health England report on e-cigarettes.  

External roles

Leonie is Assistant Editor for the journal Addiction and Associate Editor for Nicotine & Tobacco Research. She acts as peer reviewer for a wide range of other journals and grant application schemes, including CRUK, NIHR, Wellcome and the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

From 2014 to 2015, Leonie worked as Research Adviser for the CRUK Policy Research Centre for Cancer Prevention. Leonie is co-chair of the Treatment Research Network Advisory Committee of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT).

Leonie is a member of the Addictions Department’s Athena SWAN Working Group