ABAI 2025 Outstanding Mentor – Julian C. Leslie

I obtained my doctorate from Oxford University in 1974 since when I have been in academic posts in Northern Ireland where I have been a full professor since 1986. I 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, I have successfully supervised 57 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. I have 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 me that that those PhD’s have gone onto diverse roles in academia, the professions and businesses in many different countries.

In 1977 I 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. I organised the Third European Meeting for the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour in Dublin, Ireland 1999, and have co-organised 18 annual conferences of the Division of Behaviour Analysis from 2007 to 2025, variously in Dublin, Galway and Athlone. I was on the program committee, as local Host, for the 11^th International Conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Dublin, September 2022. I have given a number of keynote addresses at international meetings in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Greece, the USA and Brazil.

In 2014, I was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by Ulster University for career research on the experimental analysis of behaviour, and in 2018 I was appointed as a Fellow, Association for Behavior Analysis International. I was awarded the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis in 2020.