A different route
into research.

From consultancy to cognitive neuroscience

I entered academia through Durham University’s Foundation Programme after a career as Managing Director of an environmental consultancy. That route brought me to questions about how people perceive the world and how experience shapes what they notice.

My research now asks when information that fits our expectations takes priority, when the unexpected takes priority, and how learning about reward changes that balance.

Teaching and widening participation

I now teach on Durham’s Foundation Programme, the route that gave me the opportunity to enter university and pursue research.

That experience shapes my commitment to widening participation, particularly supporting and encouraging students from non-traditional backgrounds. Having taken that route myself, I want others to have the chance to find their place in higher education.

Recovery community work

Until August 2026, I served as a Volunteer Lead at Red Rose Recovery, a charity working in addiction and mental health recovery. I stepped back as my teaching and research commitments grew. That work remains important to me and continues to inform my interest in reward and perception.

My PhD investigates basic cognitive processes. I am interested in how this understanding might eventually contribute to research on vulnerability and resilience in addiction, and in sharing accessible accounts of the work with recovery communities.

Working across approaches

Alongside the PhD, I collaborate on CPOMDP, developing and evaluating artificial agents within the active inference framework. It gives me another way to work on questions about perception and inference.

I am interested in conversations with people studying cognition, building computational agents, or finding ways to explain these ideas to a wider audience.