Gemma Calvert facts for kids

Gemma A. Calvert FRSA is a British neuroscientist. A neuroscientist studies the brain and how it works. She is also a pioneer in neuromarketing. This field uses brain science to understand how people make choices about products.

Gemma Calvert started Neurosense Limited in 1999. This was the world's first company focused on neuromarketing. In 2016, she also helped start Split Second Research. This company helps businesses understand what people think without them even realizing it. Today, she is a professor of marketing at the Nanyang Business School in Singapore.

About Gemma Calvert

Gemma Calvert grew up in both the United States and Malaysia. Her father, Michael John Calvert, was a banker. He grew up in China during the Second World War.

She went to the Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur until 1978. After that, she attended Wycombe Abbey in the United Kingdom.

Early Career and Education

Before becoming a scientist, Gemma Calvert worked in marketing. She was an account executive for a company called Francis Killingbeck Bain.

Later, she decided to study social psychology at the London School of Economics. She then earned her DPhil (a type of doctorate degree) in clinical medicine. She completed this at the University of Oxford in 1997.

Her research used a special brain scanning tool called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This was the first time an Oxford doctorate used fMRI to study how the human brain works.

Starting Neuromarketing

Gemma Calvert realized that fMRI could help understand why people buy certain things. It could show the hidden reasons behind their choices.

So, in 1999, she co-founded Neurosense Limited. This company used fMRI and psychology to help marketing. She started it with Professor Michael Brammer and Dr Peter Hansen.

She received important awards for her medical research in 1998 and 2001. She worked at the University of Oxford until 2004. Then, she became a reader at the University of Bath. In 2008, she became a professor at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick.

In 2010, she became the managing director of Neurosense Limited. In 2012, she was chosen to join the Global Agenda Council for Neuroscience and Behaviour. This is part of the World Economic Forum.

Her Research and Discoveries

Over the past 20 years, Gemma Calvert has written more than 50 scientific papers. She also helped write a book called Handbook of Multisensory Processes.

How Our Senses Work Together

Her early research was very important for understanding the human brain. She used fMRI to study how our different senses, like sight and hearing, work together.

She published her first academic paper in the journal Science. This was while she was still a student. She found that when people silently read lips, the part of their brain that handles hearing becomes active.

This discovery and her later work showed how our senses interact. They also showed how these interactions can affect our behavior without us even knowing it.

Brain Science in the Media

Besides her academic work, she has done brain imaging studies for many big companies.

She has also appeared on many TV and radio shows. These include CNN, 60 Minutes, and BBC programs like Secrets of the Superbrands. Her research has also been featured in magazines like Time, The Economist, and Wired.