Read Prof Blakemore's piece about whether adolescents aged 16 years old should be alowed to vote, published in The Times.
Congratulations Sara for receiving the Returning Carers Scheme grant.
More info about the scheme here https://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/policies-procedures/returning-carers-scheme
Congratulations Lucía for receiving the Cambridge Humanities Research grant for the next study year.
More info about the grant here (internal) https://www.ahssresearch.group.cam.ac.uk/res-fund-opps/CHRG
Supervisors: Professors Duncan Astle and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
In collaboration with Newham College, the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit are seeking a female doctoral student for a funded PhD studentship (for someone eligible for UK fees status), to start in the following academic year (25/26).
Closing date for applications 26/07/25.
Read Prof Blakemore's piece about Exam stress and the adolescent brain, published in The Times.
Lucía has joined the lab as a postdoc: read more about her here
Congratulations Kirsten Thomas and Sara de Felice for winning the People's Choice vote during the Hackathon on Multimodal Neuroimaging for their project on Multimodal imaging hackathon toolkit!
You can read more information here:
Congratulations to Blanca for being offered a policy placement at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, UK Department of Health & Social Care.
Read her application policy brief here
Scientists say the findings might shed light on the link between loneliness and mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders, which are on the rise in young people.
Read the coverage: BBC, The Independent, DailyMail, The Guardian, University of Cambridge, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), la Repubblica (Italy), Corriere Della Sera (Italy).
Experts suggest raising the UK age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 14 years old to match European law
Read the article here.
The new Lancet Commission on Adolescent Mental Health has been published, including a call for urgent action by a global consortium of world-leading experts.
You can find more details here.
We say goodbye to Stan, who will be working as a research assistant for the Growing up Together in Society project, led by Prof Eveline Crone.
Thank you for your time with us and good luck with this new project!
You can find out more details about the GUTS project here.
We say goodbye to Alex, who is starting an exciting PhD project at the SGDP Center (KCL) under the supervision of Prof Francesca Happé and Prof Emily Simonoff.
Thank you for your time with us and good luck as you embark on your PhD journey!
Congratulations to Dr Sara de Felice on being awarded the 2024 EPS Frith Prize!
Sarah-Jayne has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Letter in the Guardian concerning a call for graduated licenses for young people
Read it here
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore discussed social media algorithms and young people’s brains and minds on BBC Radio 4
Emily Towner from the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience group is in the Cambridge University women’s clay pigeon shooting team, who are officially national champions, and defeated all the other universities at the national championships!
Read Blanca's Psychologist magazine blog post on the Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition Real Families: Stories of Change, curated by Susan Golombok.
Read Sarah-Jayne's interview with TES magazine
Sara has joined the lab as a postdoc: read more about her here
Read Blanca's blog post on her recent research here.
Congratulations to Dr Jovita Leung on passing her PhD viva!
The Blakemore Lab were visited by Learnus to create this video, featuring interviews with multiple lab members
"Don't blame the young for being moody"
Read Sarah-Jayne's piece on nurturing teenage minds for the Guardian.
Congratulations to Dr Gabriele Chierchia, a long -time postdoctoral research fellow within the Blakemore Lab, on starting a lectureship at the Università Di Pavia.
Read our new paper published in the JCPP, co-authored by Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer and Jack Andrews
Read the news coverage in the University of Cambridge and in the Independent
Sarah-Jayne elected Honorary Fellow at St John's College, Oxford.
Read more here.
Sarah-Jayne has been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences.
"New Fellow Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FMedSci’s research on the adolescent brain using behavioural and neuroimaging methods has influenced policy on education, mental health and criminal justice."
Read more here.
Letter in today’s Times arguing that the Covid-19 Inquiry must include the effect of the pandemic on children and young people.
Read Blanca's interview with Gates Cambridge on
how can teenagers build resilience
Welcome to Giacomo, our new postdoc
BlakemoreLab research mentioned in parliamentary debate on education assessment reform
Congratulations to Saz Ahmed who, after 4 years as a postdoctoral research fellow in the BlakemoreLab, will take up a new job as Research Manager in the Mental Health team at Wellcome.
Sarah-Jayne was awarded the IUPsyS Quadrennial Advancement in Psychological Science Prize 2020 for contributions of high international reputation that represent a major advancement in psychological science.
Read more here.
Congratulations to Amy on her Programme Track Leader position at the CBU.
Congratulations to Emily for passing her first year PhD viva.
Congratulations to Sophie for passing her first year PhD viva.
Lydia has recently joined the lab and will be working on the CaM-App study.
Read more about her here.
Jack has passed his PhD viva with no corrections!
We are now launching our new study investigating the impact of social distancing on loneliness and mental health worldwide.
This project is funded by the Jacobs Foundation. Read their latest article "What helps against loneliness?" here.
Find out more about CaM-App here.
Read more about her here.
Congratulations to Professor Blakemore for being included in the shortlist of the Times Education Supplement (TES) Person of the Year 2020!
"Winning the Popular Science category, Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain draws upon research carried out by author and neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore to explain the common behaviours of adolescents..."
read more about this award here.
Read Prof Blakemore's short interview in the Cambridge University Tackling Covid-19 series, focusing on social isolation and adolescent mental health
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/tackling-covid-19-professor-sarah-jayne-blakemore
Emily Towner has joined the lab as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge
Sophie Fielmann has joined the lab as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge
Dr Livia Tomova has joined the lab as a Research Fellow at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge
Congratulations to Dr Suzanne Schweizer for the birth of her baby daughter, Lily!
Congratulations to Jessica Bone for submitting her thesis and for starting a postdoc with Daisy Fancourt at UCL!
Written evidence to the Education Committee reviewing the impact of Covid-19 on education and children’s services, from Cambridge University Cross-Disciplinary Special Interest Group for Policy related to children and young people.
Read BBC's report on the Letter to the editor published in The Sunday Times
Read the Letter to the editor: School shut-out is crushing children signed by more than 100 leading Psychologists in the UK urging education secretary, Gavin Williamson, to reconsider.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/letter-to-the-editor-school-shut-out-is-crushing-children
Paper on social distancing and adolescent mental health (The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health) on BBC
Dr Rob Doubleday invites Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Prof Paul Ramchandani to speak about how the pandemic is impacting wellness in children and adolescents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mbV99cdLA&feature=youtu.be
Sarah-Jayne discusses the Teenagers and Social Isolation with Phil Sansom
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/teenagers-and-social-isolation
In this short review we discuss social distancing and adolescent mental health, and social media as a potentially mitigating factor.
Read it here!
Congratulations to Jovita Leung for passing her MPhil-PhD upgrade. Very well done!
Age of Criminal Responsibility
Letter to The Times on the 27/12/2019
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore will be giving a lecture on the adolescent brain during the Cambridge Science Festival on March 16th at 19 30. More information about the event here.
UPDATE: CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19
Special Christmas lunch with games and a warm farewell to Dr Emma Jayne Kilford. Congratulations on your Post doc position at the Clinical Psychology department. We wish you all the best!
You can read about her new position at our People page.
Congratulations Blanca!
Blanca made the Dean's List for her brilliant work during her Master's. Well done!
Thank you to everyone who came to the farewell party and for all the lovely gifts!
The BlakemoreLab has moved to Cambridge, as Sarah-Jayne has taken up a Chair in Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
Welcome Blanca!
We welcome Blanca who has joined our lab as the new Research Assistant.
After being in the lab with us for three years, Cait Griffin has recently started working as a UX Researcher. Good luck!
Several members of the lab were recently interviewed by the Swiss radio channel SRF. You can listen to the interview in full here
Sarah-Jayne discusses the development of the adolescent brain with Jenni Murray (10 minutes in)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/03f340c0-49a6-11e9-9ce9-2870f730ce44
Congratulations to Jack on being awarded the Sully Scholarship, which is a PALS prize for PhD students who have excelled in their upgrade report and interview.
Congratulations to Sarah-Jayne on winning the Royal Society Insight Investment Prize for "Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain"!
Delia has been awarded the British Neuroscience Association Doctorate Prize 2018
Huge congratulations to Dr Emma Kilford on passing her viva.
Emma will be working as a postdoc on our recently awarded GCRF Global Impact Accelerator award 'Developing a scalable treatment for depression in adolescents in rural South Africa'
Well done to Maxi on being awarded a distinction in his MSc!
Congratulations to Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on winning the the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2018.
Watch the 2018 award ceremony, presented by Professor Brian Cox with the link below.
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2018/10/book-award/