Our staff
staff categories
These are our Birkbeck staff categories within the Department of Psychological Sciences.
Head of Department
Deputy Head of Department
Academic Staff
- Professor Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Professor of Forensic Psychology and Public Policy
- Professor Richard Cook, Professor of Psychology
- Professor Richard Cooper, Professor of Cognitive Science, Head of Department
- Professor Gergely Csibra, Professor of Psychology
- Ana da Cunha Lewin, Senior Lecturer
- Professor Eddy J Davelaar, Professor of Cognitive Science
- Professor Iroise Dumontheil, Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience
- Professor Martin Eimer, Professor of Psychology
- Dr Joanna Farr, Lecturer
- Dr Elisa Raffaella Ferrè, Senior Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies
- Professor Beth Grunfeld, Professor of Health Psychology
- Professor Ulrike Hahn, Professor of Psychology
- Professor Mark Johnson, Professor of Psychology
- Professor Emily Jones, Professor of Psychology
- Professor Natasha Kirkham, Professor of Psychology
- Professor Matthew Longo, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dr Michael Mallaghan, Senior Associate Lecturer
- Professor Denis Mareschal, Professor of Psychology, Deputy Head of Department (Research and Postgraduate)
- Dr Emma Meaburn, Reader in Psychology
- Professor Anne Miles, Professor of Psychology
- Dr Ori Ossmy, Lecturer
- Professor Clare Press, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Assistant Dean for Research
- Professor Angelica Ronald, Professor of Psychology and Genetics
- Dr Alex Shepherd, Reader in Psychology
- Professor Jonathan A Smith, Professor of Psychology
- Dr Marie L Smith, Reader in Psychology
- Professor Tim J Smith, Professor in Cognitive Psychology
- Professor Fiona Tasker, Professor of Psychology
- Dr Adam Taylor Tierney, Reader in Psychology
- Professor Michael Thomas, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dr Daniel Yon, Lecturer
Honorary Research and Teaching Fellows
- Dr Paul J Barber, Emeritus Reader, Publications
- Dr Megumi Fieldsend, Honorary Research Fellow, IPA Research Group
- Dr Martin Frost, Honorary Research Fellow
- Dr Vernon Gregg, Honorary Research Fellow
- Dr Amanda Holmes, Honorary Research Fellow
- Dr Charles Lewis, Honorary Research Fellow
- Dr Alastair Leyland, Honorary Research Fellow, Health and Lived Experience (HALE)
- Dr Richard Poulton, Honorary Research Fellow, Health and Lived Experience (HALE)
- John Rhodes, Honorary Research Fellow, IPA Research Group
- Rachel Starr, Honorary Research Fellow, IPA Research Group
- Dr Paul Wilson, Honorary Research Fellow
Research fellows
- Dr Samara Banno, Daphne Jackson Trust Research Fellow with Professor Michael Thomas, Professor Rick Cooper and Professor Emily Jones
- Dr Nick Berggren, Research Fellow, Brain and Behaviour Lab
- Dr Elizabeth Burchell, Research Fellow with LonDownS Consortium Project
- Dr Philip Clapson, Associate Research Fellow, Profile, Publications
- Dr Michael Dash, Research Fellow with Professor Michael Thomas
- Dr Brandi Drisdelle, Research Fellow with Professor Martin Eimer
- Dr Georgia Lockwood Estrin, Sir Henry Wellcome Research Fellow with Professor Emily Jones
- Dr Teodora Gliga, Research Fellow with Professor Denis Mareschal, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
- Dr Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Research Fellow with Professor Mark Johnson
- Dr Marko Tesic, Royal Academy of Engineering UK IC Research Fellow with Professor Ulrike Hahn
- Dr Alon Zivony, Research Fellow, Brain and Behaviour Lab
Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Assistants
- Dr Jannath Begum-Ali, AIMS2 Postdoctoral Researcher, BOND Lab
- Dr Chiara Bulgarelli, Postdoctoral Researcher with Professor Clare Press, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
- Dr Teresa Del Bianco, AIMS2 Postdoctoral Researcher, BOND Lab
- Dr. Nathan Foster, Postdoctoral Researcher, Action Lab
- Dr Louisa Gosse, ISSF Postdoctoral Researcher, BOND Lab
- Dr Anna Gui, Postdoctoral Researcher, GEL Lab
- Dr Rianne Haartsen, AIMS2 Postdoctoral Researcher, BOND Lab
- Dr Gemma Hutton, Postdoctoral Research Assistant with Dr Anne Miles
- Dr Ines Mares, Postdoctoral Research Assistant with Dr Marie L Smith
- Dr Luke Mason, Senior AIMS2 Postdoctoral Researcher, BOND Lab
- Isabella Nizza, Qualitative Researcher on NIHR grant with Professor Jonathan A Smith
- Dr Simon Richardson, Senior Postdoctoral Research Assistant
- Dr Maheen Siddiqui, ESRC Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
- Dr Ashley Symons, Postdoctoral Research Assistant with Dr Adam Tierney
- Dr Maria Tsantani, Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr Richard Cook
- Dr Tim Vestner, Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr Richard Cook
Emeritus staff
- Professor Jacqueline Barnes, Emerita Professor of Psychology: Professor Barnes has devoted her life to improving developmental outcomes for children from deprived or challenging backgrounds. Her research has focused on environmental and community influences on parenting and child development, which has been immensely influential in forming policy in the UK and beyond. Her research has also focussed on how various social, physical and psychological problems affect parenting such as homelessness, breast cancer, artificial insemination and eating disorders. View Professor Jacqueline Barnes’ publications on BiRon.
- Dr Virginia Eatough, Emeritus Reader in Psychology
- Professor Edward (Ted) Melhuish, Emeritus Professor of Human Development: Professor Melhuish studies social and communicative development from birth to adulthood, including the effect of environmental factors. He is interested in early education and care, parenting, child poverty and disadvantage, and child development and social policy. He has devoted much of his life to theoretically driven research to produce improvements in development and well-being in areas such as the development of pre-term babies, children of psychiatrically disturbed parents, social, linguistic and cognitive development, emergent literacy, and early childhood education and care and the evaluation of policy initiatives. View Professor Edward Melhuish's publications on BiRon.
- Professor Mike Oaksford, Emeritus Professor of Psychology: In 2005, Professor Oaksford moved to Birkbeck as Professor of Psychology and Head of Department. He stepped down as Head of Department in 2021. His research concerns how people reason and construct arguments in discourse. This research involves experimental work and modelling the resulting inferential behaviour.
- Professor Anne Richards, Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Visiting Professors
- Professor Robert Leech: Robert Leech was named a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychological Sciences and Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck in autumn 2020. He is Professor of Neuroimaging Analytics in the Neuroimaging Department at Kings College London. Professor Leech obtained his PhD from Birkbeck Psychological Sciences in 2004 and continued as a postdoctoral fellow until 2008, when he moved to Imperial College London as a lecturer. He actively collaborates with a number of academic staff in the department on developmental and adult EEG and MRI projects. Professor Leech has made important contributions to our understanding of brain network function and has developed novel tools for efficiently estimating neural response preferences in an unbiased manner. View Professor Leech's full publications list.
Research assistants and Officers: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
- Neil Forrester, Research Assistant for Professor Michael Thomas
- Chloe Taylor, Research Assistant
- Tamsin Osborne, Research Assistant
- Rebecca Holman, Research Assistant
- Giulia Ghillia, Bright Project Research Assistant
Academic advice and learning support
- Dr Germaine Symons, Learning Development Tutor
- Dr Claire Santorelli, Psychology Study Skills Co-ordinator
- Dr Tahereh Laleh Ansari, Learning Development Tutor, MSc focus
- Email the postgraduate learning support team
Professional and support staff
- Psychology office:
- Naomi Adams, Assistant School Manager
- Yvonne Ng, Assistant School Manager
- Joe Alkins, Postgraduate Team Leader
- Melissa Tang, Postgraduate and Undergraduate Team Leader
- Amy Flaye, Undergraduate Team Leader
- Sukh Brar, Administrator - Undergraduate and Postgraduate Team
- Suma Menon Nath, Administrator - Undergraduate Team
- Kate Horan, Administrator - Undergraduate Team
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development office:
- Berta Hortiguela-Fernandez, Senior Finance Administrator
- Annabel Page, Administrator
- Leslie Tucker, Centre Coordinator
Impact officer
- To be advised.
Technical staff
- Avi Reisman, Psychology IT Manager
- Ruben Camilo Zamora, Software Developer
- Mahen Padayachee, Psychology IT Support Officer
- Paola Pinti, CBCD Senior Research Laboratory Developer, ToddlerLab CAVE
- Rebecca Nako, Brain and Behaviour Lab, Research Assistant