People
Lab director
Prof. Iroise Dumontheil
Iroise Dumontheil is Professsor of Psychology and ARC Future Fellow in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on investigating the development of social cognition and cognitive control during childhood and adolescence, and their functioning in adulthood. Iroise studied Biological Sciences for her undergraduate studies in France (1998-2002). She then did a MSc in Cognitive Sciences at University Paris VI and a PhD in Cognitive Neurosciences at University Paris VI, in collaboration with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. After 6 years of postdoc in Cambridge, London and Stockholm, Iroise was a Lecturer, Reader and eventually Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of Melbourne (2012-2023).
Current PhD students
First supervision
Lucy Palmer (started in 2021)
Lucy completed a BSc Neuroscience at the University of Bristol and an MSc Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Birmingham. Lucy's PhD project builds on previous work from the UnLocke project and explores the neural mechanisms of inhibitory control in counterintuitive reasoning in maths and science, using functional MRI data in primary school children. The second aim of the project will be to investigate the neural mechanisms of inhibitory control and counterintuitive reasoning across development in adolescents and adults.
Secondary supervision
Anja Hollowell (started in 2021)
Anja first did a BSc Natural sciences at Lancaster University before completing a Psychology Qualifying Certificate at Oxford Brookes University and an MSc Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology at Birkbeck, University of London. Anja's first supervisor is Prof. Angelica Ronald and her PhD will focus on building polygenic scores of early temperament using multiple cohort data and then linking these polygenic score to later cognitive and mental health outcomes in adolescents from SCAMP study the cohort.
Former PhD students
Roisin Perry (completed in 2024)
Roisin completed her PhD at UCL Institute of Education, under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Tolmie. In one strand of her research she worked on a baby and toddler cohort looking at potential early predictors of ASD with Prof. Emily Jones, in the other strand of her research she looked at executive functions and SES measures as predictors of academic achievement using the SCAMP study data with Prof. Michael Thomas and Prof. Iroise Dumontheil.
Fotini Vasilopoulos (completed in 2024)
Fotini took a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Sydney and later a Foundation Degree in Dance Movement Psychotherapy at Goldsmith College, before completing a Masters in Education Psychology at the University of Cambridge. Fotini has been a dance and yoga teacher to adults and primary school children and her UBEL funded PhD project investigated the impact of creative dance activities on children's executive functions and academic outcomes. Fotini is now a postdoc at the CREATE Centre at the University of Sydney.
Elizabeth Booth (completed in 2023)
Lizzy completed her undergrad degree in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Liverpool. After working first as a teacher and then in brain injury rehabilitation, she completed the MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of York. Her PhD research is looking at executive functions in adolescents, as part of the SCAMP study into the effects of mobile phone use.
Patricia Beloe (completed in 2021)
Trish completed her BSc in Psychology at Birkbeck, before obtaining an ESRC 1+3 PhD studentship. Trish first took the MSc Educational Neuroscience and is now doing her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Naz Derakhshan, studying the working memory and emotional vulnerability in adolescents, using behavioural and EEG methods. Trish is also developing and testing working memory training interventions.
Dr Susanne de Mooij (completed in 2021)
Susanne did her Bachelor of Science and a MSc in Psychological Research Methods at the University of Amsterdam. She was a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher PhD student at Birkbeck. Her research was part of the INTERLEARN project and focused on tailoring online learning experiences to individual students. (First supervisor: Dr. Natasha Kirkham, Supervisors in the Netherlands: Prof. Han van der Maas and Prof. Maartje Raijmakers). Susanne is now a postdoc at Radboud University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-de-mooij-4693a594
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E997Pw8AAAAJ&hl=nl
Dr Su Morris (completed in 2020)
Su took the MA Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck/UCL Institute of Education, her dissertation was supervised by Prof. Andy Tolmie at the IOE and she then completed her PhD at UCL-IOE with Prof. Emily Farran and I. Her research focused on visuospatial processing styles and their relationship with science and maths learning during development.
Dr Georgina Donati (completed in 2018)
Georgina took the MA Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck/Institute of Education, her dissertation was supervised by Prof. Michael Thomas. She then carried out her PhD (2015-2018) on self-regulation and emotional regulation and their link with cognitive control abilities, with Dr. Emma Meaburn as her second supervisor. She used the ALSPAC data to investigate genetic associations with self-regulation profiles as well as associated educational outcomes. Georgie obtained Wellcome Trust ISSF funding for a 6 month fellowship at Birkbeck in the iDCNlab.
Georgie is currently a postdoc in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=ZfdeZOYAAAAJ
Dr Annie Brookman-Byrne (completed in 2018)
Annie studied Psychology at the University of Surrey and then worked as a research assistant at the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Southampton before taking the MSc Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck/UCL Institute of Education. She then carried out her PhD (2015-18) on the role of inhibitory control and relational reasoning in maths and science reasoning during adolescence, with Prof Denis Mareschal and Prof Andy Tolmie (UCL IOE) as her other supervisors. Annie obtained Wellcome Trust ISSF funding for a 6 month fellowship at Birkbeck in the iDCNlab. Annie is now Deputy Editor of BOLD at the Jacobs Foundation.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrookmanbyrne/
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=u88zlMYAAAAJ
Dr Lucía Magis-Weinberg (completed in 2017)
Lucía initially undertook medical training in Mexico before completing the MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL with Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. Lucía then carried out her PhD (2013-2017) at UCL's Department of Experimental Psychology with Dr. Ruud Custers as her other supervisor. Lucía's PhD focused on adolescent cognition, in particular proactive and reactive aspects of cognitive control, and how the balance between the two can change as a function of the reward or task context. After a postdoc at University of California at Berkely in the lab of Dr. Ron Dahl Lucía has now started her own lab at the University of Washington.
https://luciamagisweinberg.com/
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=FkEIgboAAAAJ
Dr Sarah Jensen (completed in 2016)
Sarah completed her undergraduate training in Clinical Psychology and an MSc in Psychology at the University of Copenhagen. She then completed an MRes at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, under the co-supervision of Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. She moved to Birkbeck to start her PhD under the co-supervision of Dr. Ed Barker and then moved with him to King's College London to complete the rest of her PhD there. Her PhD focused on how the early stress experiences of children can modulate the development of brain structure and cognition, and increase the risk for psychiatric morbidity.
Sarah has completed work for the World Health Organization and after her PhD Sarah was a postdoc at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Prof. Charles Nelson, and then a postdoc and research scientist at Boston College in the lab of Prof. Theresa Betancourt.
Sarah is now a staff scientist at Boston College hospital.
Lab alumni
Dr. Dilini Sumanapala (Postdoc, Birkbeck, 2017-2018)
Dr. Lucía Magis-Weinberg (PhD, UCL, 2013-2017), currently a postdoc at Berkeley University.
Dr. Rosanna Edey (PhD, Birkbeck, 2013-2017), currently working as a civil servant.
Dr. Irene Symeonidou (PhD, UCL, 2013-2017)
Dr. Natalie Berger (PhD, Birkbeck, 2013-2017)
Olga Sutskova (BSc Psychology, Research Volunteer), currently PhD student at Birkbeck, University of London.
Dr. Sarah Jensen (PhD, King's College, 2012-2016), currently a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Theresa Betancourt at Boston College.
Emma Kemp-Gee (MSc Educational Neuroscience)
Leslie Liszcz (MSc Educational Neuroscience)
Dr. Laura Wolf (PhD, UCL, 2010-2015), currently working as a consultant in Germany
Dr. Fumikazu Furumi (visiting PhD student, Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Japan)
Gillian Humphrey (MSc Educational Neuroscience)
Jake Alvarez (MSc Cognitive Neuroscience)
Sherine Lovegrove (MSc Cognitive Neuroscience)
Ben Francis (MSc Cognitive Neuroscience)
Joanne Bevan (MSc Psychology)
Garrett Crook (MA Developmental Science)