Dr Dawn N. Albertson

Summarising Dawn’s academic trajectory is not easy but, roughly: behaviour, drugs, brains on drugs and then educating people about brains, behaviour, and drugs. Starting out in psychology, she subsequently completed a Ph.D in Cellular & Clinical Neurobiology focused on substance-induced gene expression in human post-mortem brains. Recognising that you can’t teach dead brains new tricks (or much at all, given their complete lack of neuroplasticity), Dawn went on to teach the living, developing a passion for science communication and public outreach; as an Associate Professor in the US, she presented and produced a radio show for psychological science communication before crossing the Atlantic to arrive at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in London where she developed and led their Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health MSc.

A neurobiologist by training, Chartered Psychologist by title, and educator through blood, sweat and tears, Dawn currently leads Psychology at Bath Spa University. With interests spanning gardening and cooking through to social justice in education and the public sphere, Dawn locates the signal in the noise for the promise of better science.