Inaugural Lecture of Professor Heather Flowe

Join Professor Heather D. Flowe for her Inaugural Lecture, hosted at the University of Birmingham's Edgbaston Campus (room location TBC) on Wednesday 29 January 2025. This is a hybrid event: you can register for virtual access via Zoom here.

'At Memory's Sharp End: From War Zones to Waiting Rooms to Justice'

How can the science of human memory help deliver justice and protect fundamental human rights? Join us for a landmark inaugural lecture by Professor Heather Flowe, an expert in memory science and criminal justice.

Drawing from groundbreaking research, Professor Flowe will provide insights about how psychological science is revolutionising justice systems worldwide. Her innovative work spans from sophisticated laboratory experiments—investigating memory in alcohol-involved sexual assaults and developing cutting-edge 3D virtual environments that dramatically improve witness identification accuracy—to vital fieldwork with human rights defenders, where memory principles guide the documentation of conflict and atrocity-related violence. This unique interdisciplinary approach, built on deep collaboration with stakeholders, demonstrates how psychological science can address urgent societal challenges while advancing both theoretical understanding and real-world impact.

As well as looking at what we understand of how sensory development works in neurotypical infants, I will also explain some of the recent insights which we are gaining from infants with very different early experiences – for instance when born without vision. I will also look to the future and what new highly sensitive brain imaging approaches and other methods promise to show us about how sensory development and sensory awareness unfolds in individual babies rather than just getting the average group picture.

Heather is an American experimental psychologist (PhD, University of California, San Diego) whose influential research bridges laboratory precision with real-world justice. Based in the UK, her research has captured attention across media platforms, from BBC Woman's Hour and The Guardian to Scientific American and the prestigious Royal Society Christmas Lectures. Heather shares her expertise with international policymakers and legal practitioners, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the US National District Attorney’s College, the UK Crown Prosecution Service, among others.

Heather is Professor by Courtesy at Florida International University and has held fellowships with the US National Science Foundation, the University of California,  and the British Academy. She serves on several editorial boards, including the American Psychology Association journal, Psychology, Public Policy and Law, and is a member of the ESRC and UKRI Cross Council funding panels. She is co-director of the Applied Memory Lab at the University of Birmingham and Director of Global Engagement for Life and Environmental Sciences.

Everyone is welcome to this event, and all are invited to join Heather after the lecture for refreshments in the Lapworth Museum.