Sarah-Jayne Blakemore facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
|
|
|---|---|
Blakemore in 2015
|
|
| Born | 11 August 1974 Cambridge, England
|
| Education | Oxford High School, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields |
|
| Institutions | University of Cambridge University College London |
| Thesis | Recognising the sensory consequences of one's own actions (2000) |
| Doctoral advisor | |
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is a British scientist who studies the brain. She is a professor at the University of Cambridge. Her work helps us understand how the brain changes as people grow up, especially during the teenage years.
Contents
Becoming a Brain Scientist
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore was born in Cambridge, England, on August 11, 1974. She went to Oxford High School. Later, she studied at the University of Oxford. In 1996, she earned a degree in experimental psychology.
She continued her studies at University College London. In 2000, she received her PhD, which is a high-level degree for researchers. Her research focused on how our brains understand our own actions.
Her Work and Discoveries
After finishing her PhD, Dr. Blakemore worked as a researcher in France. She studied how the brain understands cause and effect. She then returned to University College London (UCL) to continue her research.
Dr. Blakemore is very good at sharing science with everyone. She often gives talks at schools and to the public. She even helped as a science expert for a BBC TV show called The Human Mind. She also wrote a book about how the brain learns, called The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education.
Her main research looks at how teenagers' brains develop. She studies how they make decisions and understand social situations. Her work helps us learn why teenagers sometimes act differently from adults. She is part of groups that advise on science and education.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Dr. Blakemore has received many important awards for her work. In 2013, she won the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society. This award celebrates women in science. She also won the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize in 2015.
In 2018, she became a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). This is a big honor for experts in social sciences. She also won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books for her book Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain. This book explains her research on the teenage brain in an easy-to-understand way.
In 2022, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). Most recently, in 2024, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is one of the highest honors for scientists in the UK.
Her Family Life
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is the daughter of another famous scientist, Colin Blakemore. She has two sons. In 2024, she wrote in The Times newspaper about her father's experience with a serious illness.
