Rate My Professor Tim Edwards

Associate Professor Tim Edwards is a behavioural psychologist in the School of Psychological and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, serving as Deputy Head of Psychological and Social Sciences. He earned his BSc from Utah State University, MA and PhD from Western Michigan University, and holds BCBA-D certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral level. His academic career at the University of Waikato includes progression to associate professor, marked by a 2024 promotion, previous roles as acting head of the School of Psychology, and lecturing in the Behaviour Analysis Programme. Edwards supervises doctoral students on projects such as exploring dogs' perception of scent mixtures and teaches courses related to psychological research and animal behaviour.

Edwards' research centres on learning processes, motivating operations, stimulus control, and their application to socially significant behaviours, particularly animal olfactory detection. As a key member of the Scent Detection Research Group, he leads efforts to train pet dogs using positive reinforcement for detecting lung cancer from breath samples, invasive fish like koi carp, threatened species, and understanding odour segregation in mixtures. His work develops automated scent-detection apparatus and evaluates technologies for medical diagnostics, conservation, and biosecurity, often in collaboration with experts in chemistry, biology, and medicine. Notable publications include 'Animal olfactory detection of human diseases: Guidelines and systematic review' (2017, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, with C. M. Browne et al., cited 107 times), 'Motivating operations and stimulus control' (2019, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, with A. D. Lotfizadeh and A. Poling, cited 65 times), 'Automated canine scent-detection apparatus: technical description and training outcomes' (2019, Chemical Senses, cited 38 times), 'Motivating Operations in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management: Review and Discussion of Relevant Articles' (2014, with A. D. Lotfizadeh and A. Poling, cited 34 times), 'Evaluation of giant African pouched rats for detection of pulmonary tuberculosis' (2015, PLoS One, cited 33 times), and 'Reproducibility of African giant pouched rats detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis' (2017, BMC Infectious Diseases, cited 27 times). These contributions have advanced guidelines for animal-assisted detection, improved training protocols, and demonstrated practical impacts in global health challenges like tuberculosis screening and cancer detection.