Dr Rees is Principal Investigator on the project. He is interested in the intersection of healthcare and criminal justice, whether that is embodied in healthcare professionals who work in criminal justice contexts (e.g. police stations and prisons), or scientific and/or medical experts presenting evidence in criminal trials.  As a result his research sits at the intersection of the Sociology of Science and Technology, Medical Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies. 

Previously Dr Rees held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2010) and an ESRC Small Grant (2010-2011), both carried out at the University of Edinburgh; following the completion of the small grant he became a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton (2011-2015).  Following his move to Newcastle University he received a Wellcome Trust Seed Award Grant for the project "Police Custody Nursing: Ethical, Social, Policy and Professional Challenges", which served as a pilot study for Work Package 2 of the current project. He is also presently a Co-I on a SSHRC (Canada) Connections Grant “Inaccessible care: An international forum on sexual assault services in rural Canada and Scotland”. 

He holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Edinburgh and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Southampton.  He has also held Visiting Fellowships at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Department of Sociology, Trent University; and School of Law, National University of Ireland in Galway.  He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the British Sociological Association and Editor of the Journal Social Theory and Health.