Rate My Professor Chris Rissel

Professor Chris Rissel is an Honorary Professor in the Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of Sydney. He earned a BSc in Psychology (Honours) from the University of New South Wales in 1985, a Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney in 1990, and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1994. Throughout his career, Rissel has held key positions in health promotion within New South Wales health services. He served as Director of the Health Promotion Service in the Sydney South West Area Health Service from 2000 to 2011. From 2012 to 2020, he was Director of the NSW Office of Preventive Health, based in the South Western Sydney Local Health District. He has been an Honorary Professor at the Sydney School of Public Health since 2011 and is currently a Senior Research Fellow with Flinders University, based in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Rissel's research focuses on obesity prevention, active travel and cycling promotion, sexual health, physical activity, childhood obesity, diet, tobacco control, and health promotion program evaluation. He has produced over 611 peer-reviewed publications, garnering more than 18,000 citations. Notable works include the Sex in Australia series published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health in 2003, such as 'Sex in Australia: First experiences of vaginal intercourse and oral sex among a representative sample of adults,' 'Sex in Australia: Selected characteristics of regular sexual relationships,' and 'Sex in Australia: Experiences of commercial sex in a representative sample of adults.' Other key publications are 'Cycling: Getting Australia Moving – Barriers, facilitators and interventions to get more Australians physically active through cycling' (2008) with Adrian Bauman and others; 'Active travel: a climate change mitigation strategy with co-benefits for health' (2009); 'The effectiveness of community-based cycling promotion: findings from the Cycling Connecting Communities project in Sydney, Australia' (2010); and 'Evaluating the transport, health and economic impacts of new urban cycling infrastructure in Sydney, Australia – protocol paper' (2013). His contributions have advanced understanding of cycling's role in public health and influenced policy on physical activity promotion in Australia. Recent research includes studies on telephone-based interventions for childhood obesity prevention and culturally responsive health practices in remote Australia.