Thursday, 2nd July 2015

16.00 - 17.00

The Seminar Room, Second Floor, Oakfield House

Title to be confirmed

Dr Angelica Ronald

Dr Angelica Ronald is director of the Genes Environment Lifespan (GEL) laboratory and a Reader at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development within the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck. Dr Ronald is also a visiting senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry (King's College London). She studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford, and did her PhD in quantitative genetics at King's. Her thesis and postdoctoral research focused on the causes of autism spectrum disorders and autistic traits. She has recently begun a new project investigating the genetic and environmental causes of psychotic experiences in adolescence, which are high risk features for later schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Another new line of research aims to investigate the genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in behavioural traits in infants with relevance to complex psychiatric conditions in later life such as autism and schizophrenia. As well as quantitative genetic methodology, her research involves genome-wide association studies, techniques from developmental cognitive neuroscience and measurement development. Together, these lines of research aim to identify and understand the genetic and environmental causes of complex disorders (such as autism and schizophrenia) and their comorbidity across the lifespan from infancy to adulthood. Dr Ronald was named a Rising Star by the American Psychological Association in 2011. She has been awarded the International Society for Autism Research Young Investigator Award, the Behavior Genetics Association Thomson award and the British Psychological Society 2012 Spearman Medal.