Group Director

Professor Martin R Yeomans 

Martin joined the University of Sussex in 1989, where he is currently Professor of Experimental Psychology and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange. He has established a strong research group exploring various aspects of human eating and drinking, with over £3 million in grant income at Sussex to date. He currently supervises 3 DPhil students, and most of his 20 previous DPhil students have gone on to research careers in academia or industry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications and around 20 book chapters and co-edited a recent book on Flavor, Satiety and Food Intake.  

Martin has a long history of engagement with the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries internationally, with consultancy and contract work with many international companies.

An important outcome of his research has been the development of bespoke software (the Sussex Ingestion Pattern Monitor: SIPM) which facilitates experimental studies of appetite control, flavour evaluation etc.  For details please go to the SIPM website. 

Address: PEVENSEY 1 1C04, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: martin@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 1273 678617. Internal: 8617

 

Research Fellow

Dr. Chi Thanh Vi

Chi joined the group in August 2018 as a Research Fellow. He received his PhD in Computer Science in 2014 and MSc in Advanced Computing: Internet Technologies with Security in 2008, both from University of Bristol, UK. His research interest falls into a multidisciplinary domain, where there is a cross-feeding between Computer Science, Multisensory Experience, Neuroscience, and Psychology. He is interested in using different brain sensing methods (for example EEG and fMRI) to understand the neural basis of different user states and investigate how it can benefit users. More information. 

Address : 4B9, Pevensey 2, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: C.Vi@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1273 678916. Internal: 8916.

 

PhD Students

Rhiannon Armitage

Rhiannon joined as a full-time Research Assistant in September 2018 before starting her PhD in September 2020. She has a PG Cert in Mental Health Practice and a BSc in Psychology with Legal Studies, both from the University of Sussex. She has previously held three different Research Assistant positions, worked as an Assistant Psychologist and has experience with a range of statistical methods including fMRI. Her research focuses on understanding the genetic and neural basis of individual differences in liking for sweet tastes as a marker of risk for the development of obesity and consequent type-2 diabetes, drawing on methods from genetics, psychology, neuroscience and nutrition.

Address: 4B9, Pevensey 2, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: r.armitage@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1273 678916. Internal: 8916.

 

Helena Blackmore

Helena started her PhD in February 2018. She was awarded MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from University of Sussex and BSc (Hons) in Psychology from The Open University. She is a recipient of the Funds Baillet Latour scholarship. Her research focuses on expectations and how these can be manipulated to improve consumer experience and promote acceptance of low and non-alcoholic beer.

Address: 1C5, Pevensey 1, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: Helena.Blackmore@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1273 677560. Internal: 7560.

 

Giada Brianza

Giada joined in October 2018, as an internal collaborator. She is running studies in collaboration with the SIGB group. She is a PhD student in the SCHILab, Department of Informatics. She received her MSc in Clinical, Developmental Psychology and Neuropsychology in 2017 and her BSc in Psychological Science in 2015, both from the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). For her PhD, she is studying how multisensory stimulation (especially the sense of smell) can impact our body perception, exploiting various techniques such as Virtual Reality. Her ambition is to develop therapies and recommendations for body perception diseases.

Address: 3R253, Chichester III, School of Informatics, University of Sussex.
Email: gb359@sussex.ac.uk

 

 

Honorary Members

Natalie Gould

Senior Researcher at Natives Group

Una Masic

Research Psychologist, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

Keri McCrickerd

Experimental Psychologist based in the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences

Keri_McCrickerd@sics.a-star.edu.sg

Lucy Chambers

Senior Scientist and Editor of Nutrition Bulletin at the British Nutrition Foundation

L.Chambers@nutrition.org.uk

Previous Members

Vasiliki Iatridi

Vasiliki has been a PhD candidate in Psychology since May 2017. She also has MSc and BSc degrees in Dietetics and Nutrition from Harokopio University of Athens in Greece. Her current research, which is jointly funded by the World Sugar Research Organization and the Doctoral School of University of Sussex, is focused on the individual differences in sweet taste perception and the possible interactions between those differences and various behavioral, anthropometric, dietary, and lifestyle factors. (more information)

Address: 4B9, Pevensey 2, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: V.Iatridi@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1273 678916. Internal: 8916.

 

Jenny Morris 

Jenny started her PhD in Psychology at Sussex in 2016. She also received her BSc in Psychology at Sussex and worked as a research assistant during this time on a project investigating how reward influences intrusive thoughts. Her research involves cognitive psychology and behavioural methods to test the mechanisms of distraction induced over-eating. This includes the effect of distraction, specifically perceptual load, on awareness of food cues, intake, flavour and satiety.

Address: 4B9, Pevensey 2, School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Email: jm560@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1273 678916. Internal: 8916.

Peter Hovard

PhD Student 

Aaron Brace

PhD Student

Tomo Ridley-Siegert

PhD Student