A quiet American, Tom has a chuckle that bubbles easily to the surface, but his easy going nature is the antithesis of the research area that's captured his imagination.

Aggression, ranging from barely concealed anger to blind outrage is Tom’s topic of choice and his research participants include convicted criminals.

“I’m interested in the whole construct of aggression, what increases and decreases it and what happens in the brain when people are angry.

“I’m also studying how sugar, caffeine, and alcohol affect aggression levels.”

Tom became interested in aggression when he was completing his PhD at the University of Southern California which is located coincidentally, in a particularly violent area.

“It was fairly common to be mugged when you were going to and from university. Plenty of my classmates were, but I managed to escape it.”

A “totally nerdy, A-grade student”, Tom clearly remembers being demotivated by lecturers who “obviously didn’t want to be teaching”.

“Now that I’m a lecturer, I go into my classes planning to have fun and I think that’s contagious, it helps keep students engaged and attentive.”

It’s an approach that’s paid off.

Tom was this month named the inaugural Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology at UNSW by the Australian Psychological Society after receiving the most votes from BPsych and Honours students.

“I’m particularly proud because the award came from student votes, rather than from an organisational level. That’s pretty cool.”

After two years at UNSW, Tom feels positive about his career move to Australia.

“This is the best psychology department in the country and I think Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I even have a great view of it from my office - I just need to get the windows cleaned...”

My earliest memory…
Moving house when I was four, it was my birthday and it was really exciting. I was given a Battlestar Galactica toy that shot missiles and I remember running around the removal boxes shooting it.

My most treasured possession…
I’d have to say my wife. That sounds bad though, she’s not my possession ... I might get some hate mail.

Two things that people might not know about me...
I play the guitar, mostly classic rock. I was in a band called Beef at high school which was a bit of a comedy act. I’ve been playing guitar forever but I’m probably not as good as I should be. I have a nice Fender electric guitar and a Takamine acoustic. I’m definitely punching above my weight with my guitars ... oh, and I speak pretty bad German.

My favourite song to dance to…
Would be anything from the Black Eyed Peas Elephunk album.

My last meal would be…
American BBQ ribs and chicken wings washed down with a pinot noir from Santa Barbara eaten in Chicago somewhere, they make the best ribs.

The book that changed my life…
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. It’s very cool, a really fascinating book. It’s a discussion of the history of humanity from a natural resources perspective. It completely turns around previous ideas about racial superiority.

One lesson I’ve learned…
To be grateful for everything. If you’re having a bad day, take a step back and think of all the good things in your life.

This interview originally appeared on NEWS@UNSW, Issue: 30 October 2009