Professor Joe Cain teaches history and philosophy of science, and science and technology studies, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Joe's taught modules concentrate in the area of history and philosophy of life sciences, with subjects varying from history of Darwinism and evolution in science and culture, history of palaeontology, philosophy of biology, science in the nineteenth century and life sciences in the twentieth century. Joe also teaches widely across science communication and public engagement, with a recent module in Science in the Publishing Industry as one example.

Joe contributes to UCL Doctoral School Development Programme with workshops on interviewing and oral history and publishing from the thesis. In the past he also has led modules on research ethics and research integrity.

Joe supervises research projects at all academic levels: undergraduate, Masters, and doctoral dissertations.

Joe has won one international and two UCL teaching awards. He has received one academic award for photography. In 2012, Joe also was awarded UCL's Public Engagement Unit's award for the head of department who has shown the strongest commitment to culture change in their area of responsibility with respect to public engagement. He also has received special commendations from UCL's Provost for his extensive public engagement activity.