Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA, FRSB

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Psychology, 1993) is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and Co-Director of the Wellcome Trust PhD programme in Neuroscience at University College London. She is one of the foremost developmental cognitive neuroscientists in the world. Sparked by the question of why most mental illness emerges during adolescence, her research has focused on the development of social cognition and decision-making in the human adolescent brain, and its consequences for mental health. She has made a unique and transformative contribution to our understanding of human adolescent development that influences policy on education and mental health.

Professor Blakemore’s research has won many awards including the British Psychological Society Presidents’ Award, the Jacobs Prize and the International Union of Psychological Science Quadrennial Major Advancement in Psychological Science Prize. This is matched by her commitment to public engagement with science and inclusion of young people in the co-production of research. Her book Inventing Ourselves received the Royal Society science book prize and was the Hay Festival Book of the Year in 2018.