Biography
Jon Simons is a cognitive neuroscientist who leads a research programme seeking to understand the brain regions involved in human memory.
After studying Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Jon undertook a PhD at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, before moving to a post-doctoral position at Harvard University. On returning to the UK, he took up a senior research fellowship at UCL, followed by a move back to Cambridge, where he is now Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and principal investigator in the Memory Laboratory at the Department of Psychology. The laboratory's research has been funded by support from UKRI (BBSRC, ESRC, and MRC) and from a number of charitable organisations (Isaac Newton Trust, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Mental Health Research UK, Rosetrees Trust, and Wellcome Trust).
Jon has published more than 100 papers in top-ranking international journals, and has held positions on editorial boards (e.g., Science magazine's open access section, Science Advances) and funding panels (e.g., BBSRC). His work has been recognised with the Experimental Psychology Society EPS Prize, a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, the Memory Disorders Research Society Laird Cermak Award, and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology and the Association for Psychological Science.
In 2025, Jon was appointed Head of the School of Biological Sciences following five years as Deputy Head. In his current role he has overall responsibility for implementation of the School's academic vision surrounding research strategy, undergraduate teaching and postgraduate education. He chairs the Council of the School and is a member of the University's senior leadership team and numerous University committees.
Research
My research investigates the cognitive and brain mechanisms responsible for the subjective experience of remembering, and how we use mental experiences to make sense of the world. This work involves inter-relating cognitive hypotheses with evidence from functional neuroimaging of healthy volunteers and from examining the effects of neurological and psychiatric disorders, and normal aging, on memory abilities.
I provide commercial consultancy to address problems faced by companies, governmental groups, charities and NGOs.
Publications
Simons, J.S., Ritchey, M., & Fernyhough, C. (2022). Brain mechanisms underlying the subjective experience of remembering. Annual Review of Psychology, 73, 159-186.
Humphreys, G.F., Lambon-Ralph, M.A., & Simons, J.S. (2021). A unifying account of angular gyrus contributions to episodic and semantic cognition. Trends in Neurosciences, 44, 452-463.
Richter, F.R., Bays, P.M., Jeyarathnarajah, P., & Simons, J.S. (2019). Flexible updating of dynamic knowledge structures. Scientific Reports, 9, 2272.
Bonnici, H.M, Cheke, L.G., Green, D.A.E., FitzGerald, T.H.B., & Simons, J.S. (2018). Specifying a causal role for angular gyrus in autobiographical memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 38, 10438-10443.
Simons, J.S., Garrison, J.R., & Johnson, M.K. (2017). Brain mechanisms of reality monitoring. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21, 462-473.
Richter, F.R.*, Cooper, R.A.*, Bays, P., & Simons, J.S. (2016). Distinct neural mechanisms underlie the success, precision, and vividness of episodic memory. eLife, 5, e18260. (* joint first-authors)
Garrison, J.R., Fernyhough, C., McCarthy-Jones, S., Haggard, M., ASRB, & Simons, J.S. (2015). Paracingulate sulcus morphology is associated with hallucinations in the human brain. Nature Communications, 6, 8956.
