Rate My Professor Kate Jeffery

Professor Kate Jeffery is a behavioural neuroscientist and Head of the School of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. Originally from New Zealand and medically qualified, she earned her MBChB from the University of Otago in 1985, followed by a master's degree there in 1989 and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1993 under Richard Morris. Her postdoctoral work was with John O'Keefe at University College London, where she advanced to Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience. At UCL, she founded and directed the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, headed the Department of Experimental Psychology from 2010 to 2013, and served as Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Brain Sciences from 2021 to 2022. In September 2022, she moved to the University of Glasgow as Head of School. She is also co-director of Axona Ltd., a company that developed high-density neural recording systems instrumental in the discovery of grid cells.

Jeffery's research investigates how the brain constructs cognitive maps of space through the hippocampus and related structures, focusing on place cells, grid cells, head direction cells, and the encoding of complex three-dimensional environments. Her studies explore sensory integration for navigation, sense of place and direction, and links between neural spatial representations and architecture. Notable publications include 'Experience-dependent rescaling of entorhinal grids' (Nature Neuroscience, 2007), 'Anisotropic encoding of three-dimensional space by place cells and grid cells' (Nature Neuroscience, 2011), 'Altered neural odometry in the vertical dimension' (PNAS, 2019), 'The place-cell representation of volumetric space in rats' (Nature Communications, 2020), and 'Irregular distribution of grid cell firing fields in rats exploring a 3D volumetric space' (Nature Neuroscience, 2021). She holds fellowships from the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Institute of Navigation, where she formerly served as vice-president. Her work has significantly influenced understanding of spatial cognition, with applications to memory disorders and environmental design.