Stephen Harridge obtained his PhD from the University of Birmingham in 1993 after which he undertook post-doctoral research in Scandinavia, initially at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and then at the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre. On return to the UK he held academic positions at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and in the Department of Physiology at University College London, where he was also a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow.

He was appointed Professor of Human & Applied Physiology at King’s in 2005 and is head of the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences. He is also co-Director of Ageing Research at King’s (ARK) and since 2012 has been Editor-in-Chief of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

His research is multi-disciplinary, using single cell through to whole-body exercise physiology approaches. This has primarily been with the aim of increasing understanding of the biology of human skeletal muscle regarding its function and adaptability. A particular focus has been on healthy human ageing, but his research also encompasses the effects of critical illness and the aerospace environment.