Rate My Professor Jon Marsden

Professor Jonathan Marsden holds the Professorship and Chair in Rehabilitation in the School of Health Professions at the University of Plymouth. Qualifying as a physiotherapist in 1991, he has developed a prominent career focused on advancing research and education in neurological rehabilitation. Previously serving as Associate Head of Research in the School, Marsden leads efforts to build research capacity in rehabilitation, specializing in sensorimotor control, gait and balance disorders, spasticity, orthostatic hypotension, somatosensory impairments, and falls management. His work addresses conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, hereditary spastic paraparesis, cerebellar ataxia, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, diabetic neuropathy, and pelvic girdle pain. Marsden investigates underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and evaluates interventions including standing frame programs, dynamic elastomeric fabric orthoses, functional electrical stimulation, foot and ankle mobilisations, and non-pharmacological treatments for orthostatic hypotension. Notable outputs include a REF impact case study on the management of pelvic girdle dysfunction with innovative orthoses and the TULAY project for co-designing community physical rehabilitation services in the Philippines.

Marsden teaches on the MSc in Neurological Rehabilitation, leading the Cognition, Perception and Behaviour module and contributing to Sensorimotor Control in Neurological Practice and Pathomechanics and Rehabilitation of Gait and Balance. He also supports the undergraduate physiotherapy programme's Neurological Physiotherapy module and supervises six current postgraduate students while having overseen PhD theses including Accidental Falls in Multiple Sclerosis (H Gunn, 2015), Recovering Hand Function after Stroke (A Wallace, 2011), and Sensory Mechanisms of Balance Control in Cerebellar Disease (L Bunn, 2010). With over 70 peer-reviewed publications garnering nearly 5,000 citations, his research enjoys international recognition through worldwide conference presentations. Key publications encompass Cerebellar Ataxia: Pathophysiology and Rehabilitation (2011), Muscle Paresis and Passive Stiffness: Key Determinants in the Development of Stiff Knee Walking after Stroke (2012), and Specialist Physiotherapy for Functional Motor Disorder in Adults: Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial (2024). Marsden received the Fellowship of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in 2017 for contributions to research and education, serves as NIHR panel member since 2012, chaired the CSP Scientific Panel (2008-2010), and is an honorary member and trustee of the Familial Spastic Paraparesis Support Group.