Introduction

I went to School in Oldham and then came to Oxford University to read Biological Science at New College where after becoming interested in neurobiology, behaviour, and the brain I remained to complete a D.Phil. in Experimental Psychology with a focus on understanding how neural systems in the brain underlie memory. A Research Training Fellowship from the Medical Research Council, followed by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, enabled me to expand my research into the neuroscience of memory and decision-making at Oxford. During this period I was appointed Science Research Fellow at St John’s College and Psychology Lecturer at Magdalen College (the latter appointment I still hold). In 2006 I was appointed to a University Lecturership (now termed Associate Professorship) in Experimental Psychology combined with the Tutorial Fellowship in Psychology at Queen’s. I have been a ‘Visiting Scientist’ at the Cognitive Brain Mapping Laboratory of my collaborators at RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan for many years and am a Visiting Professor at Tohoku University Brain Science Centre, also in Japan. In 2016 I was promoted to a full Professor in Behaviour and Cognitive Neuroscience and I head the ‘Brain and Behaviour Research Group’ in the Department of Experimental Psychology.