Julian C. Leslie
Ulster University
Dr. Leslie obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in 1974. Since then, he has been in academic posts in Northern Ireland where he has been a full professor since 1986. He has published textbooks on behaviour analysis in 1979, 1996, 2000, 2002 (the 1996 volume was reprinted until 2008 and remains in print, and the 2002 text also remains in print). As well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and conducting basic and applied research, Dr. Leslie has successfully supervised 59 students who have obtained PhDs in fields including the experimental analysis of behaviour, applied behaviour analysis, psychopharmacology, behavioural neuroscience, experimental psychology, and applied psychology. Three PhD’s were concerned with behavioural strategies to address environmental issues. He has been lucky to collaborate with a number of excellent colleagues at Ulster University in the supervision of PhD students. It is a source of great pleasure to him that those PhD’s have gone onto diverse roles in academia, the professions and businesses in many different countries.
In 1977 Dr. Leslie was co-founder of the group, Behaviour Analysis in Ireland. In 2004, the group became the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland. He organised the Third European Meeting for the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour in Dublin, Ireland 1999, and co-organised 19 annual conferences of the Division of Behaviour Analysis from 2007 to 2026, variously in Dublin, Galway and Athlone. Dr. Leslie was on the program committee, as local Host, for the 11th International Conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Dublin, September 2022. He has given a number of keynote addresses at international meetings in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Greece, the USA and Brazil.
In 2014, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by Ulster University for career research on the experimental analysis of behaviour, and in 2018, appointed as a Fellow, Association for Behavior Analysis International. He was awarded the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis in 2020. In 2025, Dr. Leslie was given a special award by the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland in recognition of a lifetime of service to Behaviour Analysis in Ireland, and an Outstanding Mentor Award by ABAI, and was appointed to the ABAI Accreditation Board DEI Committee.