Rate My Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, holding the Chair of Psychology in the Social Sciences and serving as Deputy Head of Department for Research. She leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group and is a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Emmanuel College, as well as a High Table Fellow at Newnham College and Gonville and Caius College. She earned a degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford (1993-1996) and a PhD from University College London’s Functional Imaging Laboratory (1996-2000), supervised by Professors Chris Frith and Daniel Wolpert, where she investigated self-processing in schizophrenia. Following her doctorate, she held a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellowship in Lyon, France, studying social cognition in schizophrenia, and then Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin and University Research Fellowships at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She served as Group Leader at UCL until 2019, when she took up her position at Cambridge. There, she develops and teaches undergraduate courses, supervises research students, and contributes to curriculum development and student wellbeing initiatives. Previously, she co-directed the Wellcome PhD Programme in Neuroscience at UCL and has mentored numerous researchers now in academic and science-related roles.

Blakemore's research examines the development of the social brain during adolescence, focusing on social cognition, peer influence, decision-making, sensitivity to social context, and mental health implications. Her work integrates behavioural science, neuroimaging, and developmental methods, informing theory and policy in adolescent mental health, public health, and education. Key publications include her solo book Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain (2018), which received the Royal Society Book Prize, British Psychological Society Book Prize, and Hay Festival Book of the Year, and co-authored The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education with Uta Frith. Highly cited papers feature 'Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition' (2006, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry), 'The social brain in adolescence' (2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience), and 'Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing?' (2014, Annual Review of Psychology). She has garnered awards such as the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, Klaus J. Jacobs Prize, British Psychological Society Presidents' Award and Spearman Medal, and Flux Society Huttenlocher Award. Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, 2024), British Academy (FBA), and Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), she advises government bodies on education and mental health policy, serves on scientific panels, and engages in public lectures and outreach.