Dr. Simon L Bacon, PhD, FTOS, FCCS, FABMR

Short Biography

Dr. Bacon is a behavioural scientist, who is interested in understanding why people do what they do and then developing tailored interventions to help positively change high-risk behaviours. These interventions range from targeting individuals through to policies. Most of this work has focused on health behaviours (e.g., physical activity, diet, weight management, medication adherence) and has targeted health-related outcomes, i.e., reducing the development and progression of chronic diseases(e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, COVID-19). The work that he does is multidisciplinary and intersectoral, requiring the engagement of a number of different collaborators and partners, and utilises a variety of mixed-methodologies, including epidemiological, psychophysiological, evidence syntheses, qualitative, and behavioural trials designs. Currently, Dr. Bacon is the FRQS co-Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health for Health Behaviour Change and the CIHR SPOR Chair in Innovative, Patient-Oriented, Behavioural Clinical Trials. He is also a fellow of the Obesity Society, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. In addition to Concordia, Dr. Bacon is co-director of the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre (www.mbmc-cmcm.ca), a researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM), and co-leads the International Behavioural Trials Network (www.IBTNetwork.org) and the CIHR funded Canadian Behavioural Interventions and Trials Network (www.CBITN.ca).

Education

PhD (University of Birmingham), MSc (De Montfort University), BSc (Hons, University of Warwick)

Research interests

• Behavioural (e.g., physical activity, weight management, stress management) interventions for chronic diseases prevention and treatment
  
• Digital behaviour change
• The epidemiological impact of health behaviours on chronic diseases
• The role of acute stress (psychophysiology) in the progression of chronic disease
• Bariatric care and surgery
• Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
• The role of preventative behaviours and the longer-term impacts of COVID-19
• Patient-oriented, patient-participatory, and integrated knowledge translation
  
• Living and rapid evidence syntheses
  

Current and previous Principal Investigator funders

Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)

Information for prospective Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

Details of Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunities and how to apply for them can be found at: https://mbmc-cmcm.ca/mbmc/study/

Google scholar list

https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=6UNs1lwAAAAJ&hl=en

Courses

EXCI 415: Behaviour Change and Interventions
EXCI 250: Research Methods and Statistics
EXCI 420: Physical Activity Epidemiology
EXCI 610: Statistics and Research Design

Information for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

Details of Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunities and how to apply for them can be found at: https://mbmc-cmcm.ca/mbmc/study/

Students wishing to pursue graduate studies under Dr. Bacon should first read the following documents.

Graduate Student General Information

Expectations of the Graduate Student