Researchers at the Institute for Mental Health

Sally is a teaching focused associate professor with a passion for enhancing the student learning experience. Her research interests are in the areas of alcohol use and hangover, harm reduction, recovery and sobriety.  

Hareth is a Professor of health economics. He holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2020-2024) to research investments in mental health promotion in schools and workplaces. 

Hareth’s research interests include the measurement of wellbeing and preferences, the role of family (informal) care in the economic evaluation and decision-making, the economics of mental health, and ...

Dr. Apps is a leading expert in the computational, cognitive and neural basis of motivation and social behaviour. More info about the labs work can be found here: www.MSN-lab.com

I am a philosopher of the cognitive sciences, focusing on the philosophy of psychology and psychiatry. I am also interested in some issues in biomedical ethics. Since January 2022, I am the Editor in Chief of Philosophical Psychology.

My main interests lie in the strengths and limitations of human cognition and agency, investigating faulty reasoning and irrational beliefs, delusions, ...

Dr Stephanie Burnett Heyes is a developmental psychologist with expertise in adolescent and young adult social cognition, emotion, decision-making and mental health/wellbeing. 

Dr Emma Černis is a clinical psychologist with expertise in complex mental health difficulties. Her research focuses on understanding dissociative experiences from a cognitive-behavioural perspective.

Pronunciation: “Chur-niss”.

Dr Chandan is a Clinical Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Birmingham. His primary research focuses on identifying and addressing health inequalities, supported through novel data science approaches. He has expertise in population health data science, data linkage and medical education.

To date, Joht has spent considerable time working on designing and delivering a public ...

Professor Copello's research has led to major impacts on addiction treatment in the UK in recent years. He was Principal Investigator in the MRC funded UK Alcohol Treatment Trial, the largest trial of alcohol treatments conducted in the UK that informs effective and cost effective delivery of psychosocial interventions for alcohol problems. He led the development of a social and family ...

Professor Jennifer Cumming is a community-based researcher with expertise in sport and exercise psychology.  She works collaboratively with clubs, organisations, and services in innovative and creative ways to develop and/or evaluate psychosocial interventions for improving performance, personal development, health, and well-being. 

Dr Dauvermann’s research focusses on the identification of risk and resilience markers in young people who are at high risk of developing neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, and is also interested in the characterisation of biopsychosocial prognostic markers of clinical and functional outcome. She uses cognitive neuroscientific and interdisciplinary methods to integrate ...

Dr Ed Day is a Psychiatrist who combines clinical work in the NHS with research and teaching. He specializes in the treatment of drug and alcohol use disorders, and his research focuses on testing novel pharmacological and psychosocial interventions. He was appointed the National Recovery Champion by the Home Office in May 2019.

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Dr De Brito is a psychologist and director of the Social, Cognitive, Affective, and Neuroscience (SCAN) lab. Research in the SCAN lab focuses on understanding the mechanistic interplay between the social, cognitive, affective, and neurocognitive factors implicated in the development and persistence of antisocial and aggressive behaviour. A second strand of research examines those aspects among ...

Professor Duda is internationally known for her expertise on motivational processes and determinants of adherence and optimal functioning in sport, exercise, and dance. She is an experienced mental skills consultant, working with athletes, coaches/instructors, and other performers at all levels. Joan is Director of a large multi-national EC-funded project which aims to promote quality ...

Dr Sarah-Jane Fenton is a Lecturer in Mental Health Policy at the Institute for Mental Health (IMH).

The IMH is an interdisciplinary research centre with a specific youth mental health focus that will deliver high quality internationally relevant research to inform and impact upon public policy and practice and improve the care and outcomes for people experiencing problems with their mental ...

Victoria is a pedagogical researcher in sport, physical activity and health. Her main research area focuses on social media/digital technologies and young people’s health and wellbeing, and she is interested in the professional learning needs of teachers/coaches.

Dr Griffiths is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Professor Rachel Upthegrove on the Psychosis Immune Mechanism Stratified Medicine Study (PIMS) and the NIHR ADePP trial. She has extensive experience of working on clinical trials and observational studies within the area of psychosis and youth mental health. 

Dr Griffiths is interested in heterogeneity in treatment outcomes and ...

Dr Nutmeg Hallett is a Registered Mental Health Nurse and Lecturer in Nursing. Nutmeg teaches on a variety of under-graduate and post-graduate mental health nursing and research modules. Her specialist areas of teaching are de-escalation, coercion and trauma in mental health. Nutmeg’s PhD investigated violence prevention in secure mental health settings and her current research is ...

Dr Clara Humpston is a Research Fellow in Youth Mental Health Methodology at the Institute for Mental Health. Her research interests mainly focus on schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses, although she is also interested in novel therapies for affective disorders. Her research experiences span from psychopharmacology to cognitive neuropsychiatry to phenomenology, and is heavily involved with the ...

Anna Lavis is an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology in the Social Studies in Medicine (SSiM) Team at the Institute of Applied Health Research. 

Her research focuses on developing approaches and solutions to the key 21st century challenge of mental ill-health. Collaborating across academic, policy and clinical interfaces, Anna has led qualitative and mixed-method studies funded by ...

Dr. Patricia Lockwood is a cognitive and social neuroscientist. She is head of the Social Decision Neuroscience Lab. Her work focuses on the neurocognitive foundations of social learning and decision-making across the lifespan and in psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Pavan is an academic Psychiatrist whose main research interests are in prediction modelling in Psychiatry and Global Mental Health including prevention of mental disorders including depression and anxiety. He is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Birmingham Early Intervention in Psychosis service.

Steven Marwaha is an academic Psychiatrist whose main interest is in early intervention and mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder and depression. His work focusses on pathways to illness and care, and ways of improving the clinical outcomes of this group using both pharmacological and psychological interventions. As a Consultant Psychiatrist he runs the Mood Disorders Clinic in Birmingham ...

Dr Michail is a leading expert in the field of self-harm and suicide prevention. She has been awarded a 3-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship to explore how systems modelling and simulation can inform strategic decision making for suicide prevention in young people aged 12-25. Dr Michail is the Co-Chair of the International Association for Suicide Prevention Special Interest Group ...

Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz is Assistant Professor in Psychology based at the Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. Her main area of research is to investigate risk factors for youth mental health, with a special focus on investigating the role of sleep problems in the development of mental health problems. Her current work is mainly focused on secondary ...

Jessica Pykett is a social and political geographer with research interests in governance, knowledge practices, policy innovation and political subjectivities.  Her research has focused on affective and emotional techniques of governance, and the influence of neuroscience and behavioural science on public policy and economic theory. Current work is on the intersections of neuroscience and ...

Dr Reniers is a research psychologist investigating the interplay between neurobiological, clinical and behavioural aspects of adolescent development and youth mental health. Her research involves the transition from health to disease, with a particular interest in emerging mental health problems (psychosis), neuroimaging (MRI and fMRI), social cognition (empathy, psychosocial functioning), ...

The aim of Dr Richards’ research is to reduce negative clinical outcomes for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her work with children with autism and children with rare genetic syndromes has thus far focused on reducing self-injury, improving sleep disorders and understanding the impact of premature birth. Her research uses experimental, epidemiological, single case and ...

Dr Rogers is a Assistant Professor in Psychology and Youth Mental Health based within the Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. His work uses different scientific methods such as clinical assessment, neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging techniques to better understand how brain maturation promotes normal cognitive development, and what causes this ...

Dr Sophie Sowden is an experimental psychologist and director of the U21 Autism Research Network. She is interested in social cognition across the lifespan as well as in a range of clinical conditions including autism, conduct disorder and Parkinson’s Disease, and takes a cross-cultural approach to her research.

Dr Andrew Surtees is an expert in social cognition, autism and mental health.  He combines cutting-edge research on social understanding in typical and atypical populations with practice as a Clinical Psychologist.

Jerry is currently leading national research for the Department of Health Policy Research Programme to explore how Local Authorities (and their partners) are responding to the challenge, embedded in the Care Act, to build capacity so as to ‘prevent, reduce or delay’ the need for social care services. He is also co-investigator in the ODESSI trial led by Prof Stephen Pilling at ...

Dr James Thompson is a teaching focused Associate Professor in the School of Psychology

Rachel is Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health at the University of Birmingham, and Consultant Psychiatrist in the Birmingham Early Intervention Services. Her research Interest is within the field of major mental illness; particularly schizophrenia and co-morbid depression in early phases of illness. Recent projects have developed the investigation of inflammatory models of psychosis ...

Dr Kate Woodcock’s research interests can be summarised as aiming to investigate and explain human behaviour by considering multiple potential influences at different levels of explanation. For example, people’s genes, their brain structure, their brain functioning, cognitive, physiological and emotional functioning can all affect people’s behaviour both individually and in an ...

Rebecca is an Honorary Research Fellow for the four-year AHRC-funded project, ‘Forged by Fire: Burns Injuries and Identity in Britain, c.1800-2000’.

Rebecca is a historian of medicine and of Quakers. Her research and publications centre on the history of psychiatry, mental health, neurosurgery, neurodiversity, and First World War medicine and disability. She has worked with ...