Rate My Professor Karly Turner

Dr. Karly Turner is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney, within the Faculty of Science. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland in 2016. She also holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours Class I in Zoology and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, both from the University of Queensland, awarded in 2007 and 2006 respectively.

Her research specializations centre on behavioural neuroscience, with a focus on the brain circuits underlying attention, learning, decision-making, habits and impulsivity. Using animal models, she applies behavioural paradigms alongside chemogenetics, optogenetics and pharmacology to study cognitive processes relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Career appointments include her current role as Senior Lecturer at UNSW, where she coordinates courses including PSYC4093, PSYC4103 and PSYC5005, and lectures in NEUR4411. She supervises honours and PhD students. Major awards and fellowships encompass the NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship (2017-2021), BBRF NARSAD Young Investigator Grant (2023), NHMRC Ideas Grant (2024-2028), UNSW Safety Net Fellowship (2021-2023) and multiple travel awards from the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society and Australian Neuroscience Society. Key publications include the 2024 book chapter 'Prefrontal Control of Actions and Habits' and journal articles such as 'Stimulus control of habits: Evidence for both stimulus specificity and devaluation insensitivity in a dual-response task' (2024) and 'Opposing Roles of the Dorsolateral and Dorsomedial Striatum in the Acquisition of Skilled Action Sequencing in Rats' (2022). Her work influences the field through translational preclinical mental health research and public engagement activities including media interviews on the neuroscience of habits.