Rate My Professor Karl Roberts

Professor Karl Roberts serves as Head of the School of Health and Professor of Health and Wellbeing at the University of New England, having joined the institution in January 2024. A behavioural scientist in forensic psychology and medical statistician, he holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, an MSc in Forensic Psychology, an MSc in Medical Statistics, and a PhD in Psychology. With over thirty years of experience in academia across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Roberts previously held the position of Chair, Professor, and Chair of Policing and Criminal Justice at Western Sydney University from 2013 to 2019. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization's Health Security and Environment Cluster from 2019 to 2023, leading projects on policing pandemics and biosecurity threats, and as Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Terrorism and Conflict at the Royal United Services Institute from 2023 to 2024. His advisory roles include developing guidance for Interpol on organisational responses to biological weapon use, contributing to the UK government's SAGE advisory group on security planning during the Covid-19 pandemic, advising the European Union on biological terrorism and extremist use of artificial intelligence, and working with the World Health Organization on policy and practice for deliberate biological threat events. Roberts chaired a New South Wales government review into policing hate crime and right-wing terrorism.

Roberts adopts a multilevel systems approach to integrate behavioural insights across healthcare, security, policy, and practice. His research specializations include the impacts of dual-use and disruptive technologies, one health, the interface between security and health, violence prevention, and systems theory applied to complex health systems. He maintains honorary academic appointments as Adjunct Professor of Pacific Policing at the University of the South Pacific, Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg, adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, and has held honorary teaching roles at Oxford, Harvard, and Brown Universities. A Chartered Forensic Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, he is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a trained hostage negotiator, and a graduate of the Harvard Negotiations Program. Key publications encompass books such as Honor-Based Violence: Policing and Prevention (2013) and Harmful Traditional Practices: Prevention, Protection, and Policing (2020), alongside influential articles including 'Women’s experience of violence during stalking by former romantic partners: Factors predictive of stalking violence' (2005), 'The prevalence of stalking among Finnish university students' (2010), and 'Organisational and procedural justice: A review of the literature and its implications for policing' (2013). His contributions have shaped policies on wellbeing, violence prevention, and professional practice internationally.