Always positive and enthusiastic in class.
Martin Yeomans is Professor of Experimental Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, where he joined in 1989 and has since established a strong research group exploring various aspects of human eating and drinking. He obtained his PhD in Biopsychology from the University of Edinburgh, completing his doctorate between October 1983 and June 1987. Over his extensive career at Sussex, Yeomans has focused on experimental investigations into ingestive behaviors, contributing significantly to the Psychology discipline through rigorous empirical studies on sensory and physiological influences on consumption.
Yeomans' research specializations include appetite regulation, food preferences, food intake, satiety, flavor perception, learned preferences, and the effects of caffeine and umami on eating behavior. His work examines how olfactory cues, expectations, and metabolic signals interact to control hunger and fullness, with applications to behavioral nutrition and obesity management. Highly cited with over 12,260 citations on Google Scholar, his key publications feature 'Olfactory influences on appetite and satiety in humans' (Physiology & Behavior, 2006), 'Umami flavor enhances appetite but also increases satiety' (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2014), and contributions to 'Optimising foods for satiety' (2023) as well as the edited volume 'Flavor, Satiety and Food Intake' (2017). This body of work has informed industry practices for developing satiating foods, as noted in University of Sussex communications on addressing obesity. Yeomans supervises PhD students in the Sussex Ingestive Behaviour Group, teaches modules such as The Psychology of Appetite, and engages in knowledge exchange through collaborations like the Innovate UK-funded project with Emteq Labs on emotion-aware eating technologies. His influence extends to public outreach via podcasts and broadcasts elucidating psychological controls over eating.
