president
Dr Jamie Ward
Jamie is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. His research focusses on individual differences in perceptual experience and their relation to cognitive aspects such as memory and social cognition. Using tools such as fMRI, EEG and TMS he has made numerous and impactful contributions to the field of neurocognitive science.
Jamie took over as BACN President at the annual meeting in 2019.
contact
Prof. Jamie Ward
Sussex Neuroscience & School of Psychology
University of Sussex
Brighton, BN1 9RH
E-mail: jamiew@sussex.ac.uk
Webpage
secretary
Dr Nick Cooper
Nick Cooper is a senior lecturer at the University of Essex. His research interests include the functional significance of cortical oscillatory activity (as measured using the EEG), individual differences in the human mirror neuron system, the modulation of attention and attentional disorder as well as the use of neuromodulatory techniques (TMS & tDCS) to influence cognition and behaviour (e.g. risk taking) and their application as clinical interventions (e.g. for the treatment of depression).
Nick joined BACN (as was BPPS) in 1999 as a student representative. After taking on the role of publicity officer for the last 17 years he will now take over as BACN secretary at the 2019 annual general meeting.
treasurer
Dr Volker Thoma
Volker is a Professor at the University of East London. His research topics are on fast and automatic (versus slow and controlled) mental processes in visual attention, object recognition, face recognition, implicit memory, risk perception and decision making, human factors, and behaviour change. He uses a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging techniques (EEG, fMRI, eye-tracking, tCS) to investigate these topics.
contact
Dr Volker Thoma
University of East London
AE 217
Water Lane
London
E15 4LZ
E-mail: v.thoma@uel.ac.uk
Webpage
publicity officer
Dr Christopher Madan
Chris is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham. He primarily studies memory, emotion, and aging—using a combination of behavioural, neuroimaging, and computational approaches.
He takes care of the societies public profile and its presence on social media platforms. If you as a member have information you would like us to publicise (such as new publications, job postings or information of general interest to the neuroscientific community) don’t hesitate to drop him an e-mail.
contact
Dr Christopher Madan
School of Psychology, University Park
University of Nottingham
Nottingham NG7 2RD
E-mail: christopher.madan@nottingham.ac.uk
Webpage
communications officer
Dr Helge Gillmeister
Helge is a Reader at the Department of Psychology, University of Essex. Her research concerns body and self-awareness, which she examines with behavioural and EEG methods in adults with and without clinical symptoms of depersonalisation, eating and body dysmorphic disorders.
As BACN communications officer she manages the society’s memberships and mailing list to make sure we keep you up to date with the latest news and developments. She is also a member of the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS), European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS), and the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN).
contact
Dr Helge Gillmeister
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
CO4 3SQ
E-mail: helge@essex.ac.uk
Webpage
Environment Officer
Dr Elia Valentini
Dr. Valentini is the Environmental Representative for the Essex UCU branch and leads the “Threat Lab”, a laboratory dedicated to the study of the way in which people perceive negative valence information, how they interpret both physical (i.e. sensory) and psychological (i.e. symbolic) events as threatening. Some keywords of his projects are therefore "threat", "pain", "anxiety", "emotion", "attention". He is an expert in psychophysics and electroencephalography. His past research mostly encompassed the study of nociceptive representation in the brain and the experience of pain. He investigated the neural substrates of nociceptive representation either in terms of sensory and working memory, or in terms of brain generators and cognitive-affective modulations.
contact
Dr Elia Valentini
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
CO4 3SQ
E-mail: evalent@essex.ac.uk
general member
Dr Sarah Garfinkel
Professor Sarah Garfinkel’s research centres on body-brain interactions underlying emotion and cognition. For example, she investigates how individual differences in interoception (detection of internal bodily sensations) can influence emotion and memory. Based in Psychiatry, she also determines how aberrant bodily and neural mechanisms can contribute to symptom maintenance in psychiatric conditions such as Anxiety, PTSD, Autism and Schizophrenia. She has a particular interest in the heart, such as heart-brain interactions underlying the gating of fear responses.
Contact
Professor Sarah Garfinkel
Room 211
Trafford Centre for Medical Research
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RR
E-mail: S.Garfinkel@bsms.ac.uk
general member
Dr Beatriz Calvo Merino
Beatriz is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at City, University of London. Her research investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms of action and body perception using expertise (i.e. sensorimotor experts/dancers). She is also diving into the new topic of Neuroaesthetics, researching how the arts and the brain interact. Beatriz won a BACN award in 2020 and is keen to support young researchers with a passion for cognitive neuroscience.
Contact
Professor Beatriz Calvo Merino
D209 , Rhind Building [D]
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
Email: Beatriz.Calvo-Merino.1@city.ac.uk
postdoc representative
Dr Sonia Abad-Hernando
Sonia is a Cognitive Neuroscientist with a Psychology background, currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Goldsmiths, and as a Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck (UoL). She did her PhD at City, University of London, specialised on sensorimotor processing (attention, perception and working memory) of body-related information & top-down modulations, using EEG to understand mechanisms behind action representation. She currently works in a diverse range of projects, from neurophysiology of touch to neuroaesthetics, exploring audiences’ brain synchrony during live performances (Neurolive ECR project).
Contact
Dr Sonia Abad-Hernando
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London SE14 6NW
E-mail: sonia.abadhernando@gold.ac.uk
student representative
Thanusha V Manohor
Thanusha is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology at University of Portsmouth under the supervision of Dr Roger Moore, Dr Paul Morris and Dr Nicholas Cooper. Her research centres on psychophysiology (i.e. EEG and heart rate) and attention. She is also interested in deep brain stimulation (DBS) and brain-computer interface (BCI). Thanusha is one of our student reps. It is very important for us to take into account the ideas and suggestions of our many student members. If you have any ideas or suggestions let Thanusha know and she will bring up the matter during our meetings.
contact
E-mail: thanusha.vmanohor@port.ac.uk