Trio of Birkbeck academics made Fellows of Association for Psychological Sciences
Scientists recognised for outstanding contributions to the science of psychology
Three Birkbeck psychology academics have been appointed Fellows of the Association for Psychological Sciences (APS), in recognition of their outstanding contributions to science.
Professors Nazanin Derakhshan, Anne Richards and Michael Thomas have been formally announced as fellows of the APS, a prestigious US-based organisation dedicated to the advancement of scientific psychology and its representation at national and international levels.
Awarded annually, APS Fellow status is awarded to members of the organisation who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and application.
About the 2016 APS Fellows
- Professor Derakhshan is director of the Research Centre for the Study of Emotional and Cognitive Resilience at Birkbeck, which investigates such phenomena as anxiety, attentional control and cognitive performance, as well as resilience in women affected by breast cancer.
- Professor Richards is director of Birkbeck’s Mace Experimental Research Labs in Neuroscience (MERLiN), and her research primarily examines the cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with emotional processing.
- Professor Thomas directs the Developmental Neurocognition lab at Birkbeck – part of the Centre for Brain and cognitive Development – and also the Birkbeck/UCL Centre for Educational Neuroscience. His primary research interests are in cognitive and language development, both in terms of developmental processes in children and in the final cognitive structures they produce in the adult.
The Birkbeck academics are among an elite cohort of only 45 academics from across the globe to have been elected for the fellowship in 2016. They follow in the footsteps of other Birkbeck psychologists who have been appointed the fellowship, including Professors Mike Oaksford, Mark Johnson, Annette Karmiloff-Smith and Denis Mareschal.
Professor Mike Oaksford, head of Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences said: “I’m delighted to see my colleagues recognised by the APS for their significant contributions to the psychological sciences. Their appointments as Fellows of this prestigious organisation are further evidence that Birkbeck has a world-class team of scientists in the field of psychology, whose talent impacts positively on the classroom environment at the College, as well as on the application of human psychology research.”
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework exercise, REF 2014, 60% of the Department of Psychological Science's work was rated in the highest category 4*, defined as ‘world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour’.
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