Peter Aggleton is a social scientist with a background in policy studies, education, international development, and health.  For over 30 years, he has worked with UN system agencies, national governments and community organisations in Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific to strengthen policy and practice with respect to gender, sexuality, HIV and sexual health.

Before joining UNSW Sydney, Peter worked at the Institute of Education in London (where he was Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit and Dean of Research) and at the University of Sussex (where he was inaugural Head of the School of Education and Social Work). Prior to that, he held a senior position within the World Health Organisation’s headquarters in Geneva. He has worked as a senior adviser to WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNAIDS and other international agencies for work on cultural and social norms, comprehensive sexuality education, HIV prevention, and sexual and reproductive health .

Peter is well known for his work on sexual and reproductive health and rights. His interests include equality, inclusion and justice and the ways  in which these issues are engaged with in national and international development, education and health.  He has been chief investigator on research projects funded by research councils in Australia and the UK, international agencies, and charitable foundations. His lifetime research grant income is over $50 million. 

Peter has published over 300 scientific papers and chapters and has authored and edited more than 60 books. He has a Hirsch (h-) index of 74, making him one of the most cited social scientists internationally.  He appears in the Stanford University - Elsevier list of the top 2 per cent of the most cited scientists in the field of public health, and in the ScholarGPA list of the top 5 per cent of of scientists working on HIV/AIDS, based on the productivity, impact and quality of his work.

Peter is editor-in-chief of two highly rated (Q1) international journals - Culture, Health & Sexuality and Sex Education – and the long established Health Education Journal, now in its 83rd year of publication  He is an associate editor of AIDS Education & Prevention, Global Public Health and Health Education Research, and co-edits three international book series - on sexuality, culture and health (for Routledge); on the social aspects of HIV (for Springer), and on foundations and futures of education (for Routledge)

Beyond his position at UNSW Sydney, Peter is an honorary professor in the Institute for Global Health at UCL in London, and a distinguished honorary professor in the School of Sociology at The Australian National University.  He is an adjunct professor in the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne.