Place of birth: Hartlepool, England

Parentage: son of Edward Weed and Peggy Weed

Family: married to Sonja Weed

Education: BSc (Hons), Recreation Management, University of Loughborough 1994; PGDip, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of North London; PhD, Canterbury Christ Church College, University of Kent 1997

Career: Mike Weed is Professor of Sport in Society, Director of Research in the Department of Sport Science, Tourism & Leisure and Director of the Centre for Sport & Physical Education Research at Canterbury Christ Church University. In 1997 he was Lecturer in Sports Management and Studies at the University of North London, becoming Director of the Research in Sports Culture (RiSC) group in 2000. From 2001 until 2006 he worked in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Loughborough University. He took up his present position at Canterbury Christ Church University in September 2006. His research interests include: the development of sports tourism research, particularly the motivations and behaviours of sports tourists and travelling sports spectators, the implications of staging the Olympic Games, the development and application of methods of research synthesis and the utilisation of research synthesis in sport management, sport psychology, sport science and tourism research, and qualitative research methodology. He is an external adviser to PhD programmes at Bournemouth and Loughborough Universities and acts in an advisory capacity to Tourism South East and Events South East. Professor Weed is Editor of the Journal of Sport & Tourism (see url below), Guest Editor for 2005 of European Sport Management Quarterly, Guest Editor for 2006 of the European Journal of Sport Sciences, and is a member of the Editorial Boards of The Qualitative Report and Qualitative Research in Sport & Exercise.

Publications include: Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy & Providers (with Chris Bull) 2004, Olympic Tourism 2008, Sport & Tourism: A Reader 2008; numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals

Contact details: Address: Department of Sport Science, Tourism and Leisure, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1QU, England; Tel: +44 (0)1227 782743; Fax: +44 (0)1227 470442; Email: mike.weed@canterbury.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14775085.asp/ .