I am Professor of Health Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at University of California, Merced, USA, Professor of Behavior Change in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at Griffith University, Australia. At UC Merced I am Director of the SHARPP Lab, Chair of the Graduate (PhD) Program in Psychology, Chair of the Committee on Committees, and Chair of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Executive Commitee. I have also been visiting Professor at the Universities of Rome, Bordeaux, and Genoble, and Hong Kong Baptist University.

My research applies social psychological theories to predict and change health behaviors. I study the theory-based effects of psychological constructs such as attitudes, intentions and motives, self-efficacy, perceived control, self-control, habit, planning, and personality traits on health behavior, and how health professionals can use data on these effects to promote health behavior change through intervention. I am also interested in developing and advancing psychological theory through theoretical integration, particularly the integration of constructs and process from social cognition theories, theories of motivation, and dual-process and dual-phase models. In addition, I am interested in research synthesis, particularly testing predictions of psychological theory across multiple populations, contexts, and behaviors using meta-analysis.

I am currently Senior co-Editor (with Blair T. Johnson) of the Health Psychology section of Social Science and Medicine. I am also editorial board member of twelve international peer-reviewed journals including Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Atherosclerosis, British Journal of Health Psychology, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Psychological Bulletin, Psychology and Health, and Psychology, Health, and Medicine. I am former Editor-in-Chief of Health Psychology Review (2011-2019), Stress and Health (2014-2019), and Psychology of Sport and Exercise (2007-2011). I received a Highly Cited Researcher Awards from Clarivate Analytics two years in a row for 2020 and 2021 in the Cross-Field and Psychology and Psychiatry disciplines, respectively. I am Distinguished International Affiliate of Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Fellow of European Health Psychology Society (EHPS), the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), and the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM).

I have lived in eight countries (Australia, Finland, Hong Hong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States) and have run a marathon in under 2h 45min.