Institute of Child Health

Five medical researchers from UCL have been recognised for excellence in medical science by election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

The new fellows are:

• Professor Michael Hausser (Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL)
• Professor Marie-Louise Newell (UCL Institute of Child Health)
• Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones (UCL Partners & UCL Institute of Child Health)
• Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience)
• Professor Jane Wardle (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care)

Academy Fellows are elected for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science, for innovative application of scientific knowledge or for their conspicuous service to healthcare.

Commenting on the election of this year’s 46 new fellows nationally, Professor Sir John Tooke, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and UCL Vice Provost (Health) said: “These new Fellows represent the wealth of talent within the UK biomedical community. Excellent medical science and medical scientists are key to breakthroughs in preventing and treating ill health.

“I am thrilled to see such a strong representation of women among this year’s Fellows, their research has contributed greatly to increasing our knowledge of medicine and the provision of healthcare.”

Professor Michael Hausser is Professor of Neuroscience and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL. He is interested in understanding the cellular basis of neural computation in the mammalian brain and how the properties of dendrites and neural circuits contribute to information processing during behaviour.

Professor Marie-Louise Newell is Director of the Africa Centre for Health & Population Studies and Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology at the UCL Institute of Child Health. She researches HIV epidemiology with a special focus on pregnancy and childhood, and the impact of HIV and its treatment on mortality. 

Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones is Professor of Paediatric Oncology and Programme Director for Cancer for UCL Partners. She leads the Cancer theme at the UCL Institute of Child Health and has a major interest in clinical and translational research in childhood cancers, particularly Wilms tumour. She is chief medical officer for UCLP’s integrated cancer system, London Cancer.

Professor Sophie Scott is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at the UCL Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience. She studies the neural basis of human speech processing and is particularly interested in how this relates to subsystems in human auditory cortex, analogies with communication by non-human primates, and the role of sensori-motor interfaces in speech perception.

Professor Jane Wardle is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Her research interests cover two broad areas of health psychology – early detection of cancer and obesity & food choice.

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on Wednesday 27 June 2012.