People

Dr Charlotte Rae

Associate Professor, School of PsychologyDr Charlotte Rae

Charlotte studied for a BA Experimental Psychology and MSc Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, then a PhD in fMRI at the University of Cambridge. Her lab investigates the biology of wellbeing, and in particular how occupational factors such as how much time we spend at work influences this. She uses a combination of MRI brain scanning, physiology, and psychology in her research.

Charlotte founded Sussex 4 Day Week to support employers trialling a 4 day working week, and to measure the impact on the mind, brain and body of staff switching to reduced working hours.

Alongside her neuroscience research, Charlotte is particularly interested in the environmental impacts of academic activities, and plays an active role in championing action on sustainability initiatives. She was the Founding Chair of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping's Sustainability and Environment Action Special Interest Group, and as Faculty Green Officer for the School of Psychology, led the Psychology Green Impact team in tackling sustainability activities within the School.

 See Charlotte Rae's staff profile

 

Dr Nick Souter

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of PsychologyPicture of Dr Nick Souter

Nick obtained a BSc in Psychology at the University of Bath. He studied for an MSc in Applied Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol. Nick has finished a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging at the University of York in 2022, where his work focused on the intersection between semantic cognition and affective processing, using neuropsychology and fMRI.

At Sussex, Nick is currently working with Dr Charlotte Rae in the Sussex 4 Day Week team. Nick's work focuses on effects of working hours on brain function, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This includes analysis of data from the UK Biobank, as well as from participants in businesses transitioning to a 4-day working week.

Nick's work at Sussex has also foucsed on ways of measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of fMRI data analysis. This work is motivated by a recent push for scientists to reflect on how their research activities contribute to the climate crisis, and understand how this impact can be reduced.

 

Dr Rhiannon Armitage

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of PsychologyPhoto of postdoctoral researcher Rhiannon Armitage

Rhiannon has a BSc in Psychology with Legal Studies and PG Cert in Mental Health Practice, both from the University of Sussex. Her PhD focused on individual differences in liking for sweet tastes and their relation to obesity using an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating sensory science, nutrition, genetics, and neuroscience methodologies to complement the psychological perspective. 

In our lab, Rhiannon is investigating how a four-day working week changes biological health, such as immune function, and lifestyle factors, such as diet, mental health and sleep. She is also leading analyses of how employment interacts with physical and mental health in the UK Biobank, using a big data approach. See Rhiannon's research profile for further information on publications, teaching and awards. 

 

Amelia Dass

Research Assistant, School of PsychologyPhoto of Research Assistant Amelia Dass

Amelia graduated from the University of Sussex with a BSc in Psychology with Clinical Approaches, and an MRes in Psychological Methods. Amelia has particular expertise in R and statistical methods. Amelia leads data collection for the Sussex 4 Day Week study, and also develops our statistical analysis pipelines in R for analysing staff wellbeing and performance in our employer reports.

 

Christina Kampoureli

PhD student, Sussex Neuroscience and Brighton & Sussex Medical SchoolPhD student Christina Kampoureli

Christina studied for a BSc Psychology and MSc Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, during which she also qualified in clinical neuropsychology. Coming to Sussex on the 4-year Sussex Neuroscience PhD program, Christina is applying her interests in clinical neuroscience to an innovative fMRI neurofeedback paradigm, investigating how attention can be modified using participants' own brain activity. She is also studying the associations between working long hours and neural function in the UK Biobank, a big open dataset of thousands of participants scanned with fMRI.

 

 

Alumni

 

Joanna McLaren, PhD student, School of Psychology

Sinead Moore, Research Assistant, School of Psychology