Sophie Scott

Head of the Speech Communication Group at UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Biography:

Professor Sophie Scott is a British neuroscientist, Senior Research Fellow at University College London's Wellcome Trust and one of the first researchers in the science of laughter.

Scott started her research career in Cambridge at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, formerly known as the Applied Psychology Unit.

Professor Scott's research focuses on the cognitive neurobiology of voice, speech and laughter, in particular speech perception, speech reproduction, vocal emotions and human communication. As deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, Sophie is searching for the neurological basis of communication, be it speech or vocalised emotion.

Achievements:

• She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in 2001 and has been funded by them since. As of 2017 she holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship.
• She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the Experimental Psychology Society. She has been awarded a UCL Provost's Award for Public engagement.

The speaker talks about:

She has combined theories and methods from speech sciences, psychology and primate neuroanatomy to understand how the human brain processes speech. She is now expanding her work to understand the social aspects of communication. And the process, results and discoveries of her research she willingly shares with her audience.