18/03/2024
I am a Research Professor of Psychology at Teesside University, with a PhD in educational technology from the University of Twente. I have over 30 years experience in research, teaching and enterprise project work at different institutions in the UK and the Netherlands.

With academic partners and non-academic partners, I work at the intersection between behavioural science and application areas such as cybersecurity. I specialise in developing and using psychological methods and models of human behaviour to create new knowledge and its application.

18/03/2024
My current research topics include the use of statistical and other methods to develop psychological models of online privacy and cybercrime/cybersecurity (partner: the Cleveland Police), electronic performance support for medical decision-making (partners include South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the UK Health Security Agency), and risk perception of genetic technology.

Dr Van Schaik has recently received several awards as a principal investigator for his outstanding contributions to behavioural science, for example from the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN).  Other funders of his research include the British Academy (BA), Innovate UK (IUK), the UK Government Office for Fair Access (OFFA), the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration (NIHR ARC), the UK Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), The Health Foundation, Codeworks, The Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

In addition, my research in the psychology of human-computer interaction has been highly influential over the past decades. I am working on several projects in different domains to identify psychological mechanisms underlying human behaviour as a basis for potential interventions.

Main education/Academic qualifications: BSc in psychology, MSc in psychology, PhD in educational technology

18/03/2024
I enjoy supervising research projects, as you can see from my record of PhD completions.

I welcome applications from potential PhD candidates, in particular those that involve the development and/or use of psychological methods and/or models in fundamental and applied research. Application domains include, human-computer interaction, information security and information privacy, genetic technology in food production, the energy transition, moral judgement, and e-health and e-health literacy.

including those in the following broad areas:

• the psychology human-computer interaction
• behavioural information security and information privacy
• human perception of genetic technology in food production
• behavioural models of the energy transition
• the psychology of judgement and decision-making, including moral judgement
• behavioural models of e-health and e-health literacy
• modelling in applied and basic psychology research
• measurement in applied and basic psychology
• psychological methods and models in other domains

18/03/2024
Interacting with Computers – Human Sciences Special Editorial Board member

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies – former Associate Editor

Behaviour and Information Technology – former Associate Editor

Frontiers in Cognition – Review Editor

Future Leaders Fellowships, UK Research and Innovation – peer review college member

Various national and international research funding councils – peer reviewer