Martin Sharp
martin sharp

Dr Martin Sharp PhD

Lecturer

 0131 455 3563

  M.Sharp@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

I joined Edinburgh Napier in 2022 as lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health. I previously worked the university of Glasgow, and during the pandemic was seconded to the Queen Elizabth University Hospital as part of the UK-wide Lighthouse lab network where I contributed to molecular qPCR and data analysis of Sars-Cov2 samples.

Having previously served as a British Army Paratrooper I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology in 2005. My area of expertise lies in behavioural endocrinology, chronobiology, and the measurement of hormones. My early interest in the relationship between the endocrine system and its relationship to complex social behaviour centred around status, social defeat, and hierarchy in human females has developed into my epidemiological work around poverty, deprivation, hierarchy, allostatic load, and health in females. I have been engaged in research projects that investigate androgen dynamics and social dominance in human females, fear thresholds and olfaction across the menstrual cycle, genomic and non-genomic action of androgens, and development of in-house ELISA protocols for androgen precursors and metabolites. Currently, I am conducting pan-European epidemiological work around population level ‘deaths of despair’ in females.

I am the Director of postgraduate research (research degree lead) for the School of Health and Social Care and welcome enquires about PhD study in any discipline within our school. From a personal perspective, I am available to supervise PhDs in epidemiology or public health that relate broadly to health and deprivation, hormones, inequality, or status. I am also available for collaborations in these areas.

School

Research Groups

Research Areas

Esteem

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner (psychology)
  • External Examiner (psychology)

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Fellow Higher Education Academy
  • Fellow HEA

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Higher Education Academy
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada)
  • Grant Reviewer ESRC
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

 

Invited Speaker

  • World Menopause Day: Four Nations
  • Workshops for Mizuno International
  • Collaborative Writing as a Facsimile of the Scientific Peer Review Process: Concordia University, Canada.
  • Introducing Formative Peer Assessment into a Biopsychology Honours Module: University of the Sunshine Coast
  • Introducing Formative Peer Assessment into a Biopsychology Honours Module: Evidence Based Discussion.

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Faculty of Public Health

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Public Events for Brentwood, Havering, and Barking NHS Trust

 

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Date


10 results

Affiliative Response to Stress: an empirical investigation of Tend-and-Befriend model

Presentation / Conference
Karastoyanova, K. V., & Sharp, M. A. (2018, July)
Affiliative Response to Stress: an empirical investigation of Tend-and-Befriend model. Poster presented at 30th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Amsterdam
Stress research in humans has been considered predominantly within the conceptual framework of Cannon’s Fight-or-Flight model. However, observations that it was primarily test...

Female Gaze Behaviour, Status and the Menstrual Cycle: An Exploratory Study

Journal Article
Sharp, M. A., & Hamilton, G. E. (2017)
Female Gaze Behaviour, Status and the Menstrual Cycle: An Exploratory Study. Human Ethology, 32(1), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.22330/heb/321/029-041
Whilst not explaining all social behaviour and organisation, dominance is nevertheless an important dimension of human social interaction. It has been hypothesized that gaze b...

Testosterone reactivity and status: Exploring sex differences in response to physical competition

Presentation / Conference
Sharp, M., & E. A. S. Al-Dujiali, . E. (2016, August)
Testosterone reactivity and status: Exploring sex differences in response to physical competition. Poster presented at XXIII International Society for Human Ethology Congress, Stirling, Scotland

Female salivary testosterone: the influence of circadian dynamics on sampling strategies in bio-behavioural research

Presentation / Conference
Sharp, M. (2015, September)
Female salivary testosterone: the influence of circadian dynamics on sampling strategies in bio-behavioural research. Poster presented at Society for the Study of Human Biology (SSHB), Lisbon, Portugal
Women's biology has been used as a powerful justification for social inequality (Fausto-Sterling, 1992). However, evolutionary arguments suggesting females are unlikely to be ...

Sex-Role Orientation in Men Is Related to Salivary Testosterone Levels

Journal Article
Smith, M. J. L., Deady, D. K., Sharp, M. A., & Al-Dujaili, E. A. S. (2013)
Sex-Role Orientation in Men Is Related to Salivary Testosterone Levels. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 3(7), 518-521. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2013.37054
Previous research has implicated the involvement of androgens in sex-role orientation in males, from studies of 2 nd to 4 th digit ratio (a purported marker of prenatal testos...

Female Salivary Testosterone: Measurement, Challenges and Applications

Book Chapter
Al-DujailI, E., & Sharp, M. (2012)
Female Salivary Testosterone: Measurement, Challenges and Applications. In S. Ostojic (Ed.), Steroids - From Physiology to Clinical Medicine. InTech. https://doi.org/10.5772/53648
[Abstract unavailable.]

Student Experience of Collaborative Writing as a Facsimile of the Scientific Peer Review Process

Presentation / Conference
Sharp, M. A., Mitchell, L. A., & Karastoyanova, K. V. (2012, April)
Student Experience of Collaborative Writing as a Facsimile of the Scientific Peer Review Process. Presented at 12th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, Glasgow

Cues to sex- and stress-hormones in the human male face: Functions of glucocorticoids in the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis

Journal Article
Moore, F., Al Dujaili, E., Cornwell, R., Smith, M. L., Lawson, J., Sharp, M., & Perrett, D. (2011)
Cues to sex- and stress-hormones in the human male face: Functions of glucocorticoids in the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis. Hormones and Behavior, 60(3), 269-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.05.010
The stress-linked version of the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis has been proposed to account for inconsistencies in relationships between testosterone and immune respons...

Evidence for the stress-linked immunocompetence handicap hypothesis in human male faces

Journal Article
Moore, F. R., Cornwell, R. E., Law Smith, M. J., Al Dujaili, E. A. S., Sharp, M., & Perrett, D. I. (2011)
Evidence for the stress-linked immunocompetence handicap hypothesis in human male faces. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 278(1706), 774-780. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1678
The stress-linked immunocompetence handicap hypothesis (SL-ICHH) of sexual selection incorporates a role of the stress hormone corticosterone (C; cortisol in humans) in relati...

Raised salivary testosterone in women is associated with increased attraction to masculine faces

Journal Article
Welling, L., Jones, B., DeBruine, L., Conway, C., Law Smith, M., Little, A., …Al-Dujaili, E. (2007)
Raised salivary testosterone in women is associated with increased attraction to masculine faces. Hormones and Behavior, 52(2), 156-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.01.010
Women's preferences for masculinity in men's faces, voices and behavioral displays change during the menstrual cycle and are strongest around ovulation. While previous finding...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • - Establishing Normal Ranges and Circadian Rhythm Profiles for Salivary Testosterone in Healthy Adult Females
  • Endogenous Testosterone, Testosterone Precursors and Metabolites; 19-Nor-Steroids and Establishment of Normal Urinary Levels of These and Related Compounds
  • Self Image and Steroid Use in Secondary Schools: Prevention Strategies

Current Post Grad projects

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