Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore PhD FBA FMedSci FRS

Summary biography: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Chair of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of the social brain in adolescence, with a particular emphasis on social cognition, peer influence and sensitivity to social context. She has advised government departments, authored books including Inventing Ourselves, mentored a large number of early career researchers and has received several international awards for her research. She has been elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.

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Narrative CV: Professor Blakemore studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford before completing a PhD at the UCL Functional Imaging Lab under Professors Chris Frith and Daniel Wolpert, focusing on self-processing in schizophrenia. She subsequently held a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellowship in France, researching social cognition in schizophrenia, followed by Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin and University Research Fellowships at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She remained at UCL as a Group Leader until 2019, when she joined Cambridge as Professor of Psychology.Alongside her research, Professor Blakemore has made substantial contributions to teaching, supervision and academic leadership. She is deputy Head of Department for Research, develops undergraduate courses, supervises doctoral and final-year students, and contributes to curriculum, research culture and student wellbeing initiatives. She has mentored many researchers who now hold academic and science-related positions internationally. She has served on advisory boards and scientific panels for organisations including the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Times Education Commission, the UK Department for Education and the Singapore Ministry of Education.Professor Blakemore has been involved in many public engagement initiatives. She co-authored The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education with Professor Dame Uta Frith, was interviewed on The Life Scientific. delivered a TEDGlobal 2012 talk and contributed to the development of Brainstorm, a play performed by teenagers at the National Theatre in London. Her book Inventing Ourselves: the secret life of the teenage brain received the Royal Society Book Prize, the British Psychological Society Book Prize and the Hay Festival Book of the Year 2018. Professor Blakemore has been awarded several research prizes, including the British Psychological Society Doctoral Award, Spearman Medal and Presidents' Award, the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, the Klaus J. Jacobs Prize, the British Cognitive Neuroscience Society Mid-Career Award and the Flux Society Huttenlocher Award. She is a High Table Fellow at Newnham College and Gonville and Caius and a Bye-Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She has been elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.