People

Dr Charlotte Rae

Senior Lecturer in 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, including a placement year in the Communication Sciences & Disorders department at Emerson College in Boston. He studied for an MSc in Applied Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol. Nick has recently finished a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging at the University of York, where his work focused on the intersection between semantic cognition and affective processing. This involved neuropsychological studies with patients with post-stroke aphasia, as well as fMRI with neurologically healthy adults. At Sussex, Nick is studying 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.

 

Joanna McLaren

PhD student Joanna McLaren

PhD student, School of Psychology

Joanna studied for a BSc Psychology at the University of Reading, including a research placement year at King's College London, during which she investigated student mental health and quality of life. Joanna's undergraduate dissertation project examined adaptive behavioural control in response to reward and punishment. Before coming to Sussex, she was a summer student at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. In the ABC lab at Sussex, Joanna is using MRI brain scanning and psychophysiology to understand how lifestyle challenges such as sleep and work patterns affect interoception and impulsivity.

 

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.