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The Team
DR DEAN D'SOUZA
Principal Investigator
Dean is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at City, University of London. He investigates mechanisms of developmental change and traces the developmental trajectories of higher-level abilities such as language back to their basic-level origins in infancy, in typical and atypical populations.
DR HANA D'SOUZA
Collaborator
Hana currently holds the Beatrice Mary Dale Research Fellowship in Psychology at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. She is interested in the development of attention and motor abilities, and how these interact over developmental time and constrain other domains in typically and atypically developing children. As part of the London Down Syndrome (LonDownS) Consortium, she has been investigating individual differences and interactions between various domains and levels of description across development in infants and toddlers with Down syndrome.
DR DAN BRADY
Collaborator
Dan is a Research Software Engineer in the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield. He has experience of writing research software and analysis pipelines using R, Python, and Julia, and has been developing scripts for one of our projects.. He is also a keen advocate of open and reproducible research practices.
ELISHA CITRON
Research Assistant
Elisha is a Natural Sciences undergraduate student at UCL specialising in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Philosophy of Science. His primary interests are in the topics where these disciplines intersect such as language acquisition, consciousness, and personal identity. Elisha also works part-time as a classroom educator for year 5 students at a local Sunday school.
TAHERA AHMED
PhD student
“I’m a Psychology student who’s just finished the final year. I reached out to Dr. D’Souza when I learnt about his project and thought it would be incredibly interesting to get involved in his research, especially since it’s within my desired field - developmental psychology!”
GALIA PALMER
Research Assistant
Galia is an international undergraduate psychology student at City, University of London. Originally from Florida, USA, she is especially interested in the interaction between neuroscience and human behavior. Galia is also an event, portrait, and family photographer.
IZZY ALEXANDER-PASSE
Research Assistant
Izzy is a Biomedical Sciences student at University College London with a passion for understanding not just what happens inside the body and the mind, but how that translates to how people act in the outside world. She is excited to look into Psychology and how it can play a part in explaining this.
AISHAH ADNAN
Research Assistant
Aishah is a Psychology student aiming to become a Clinical Psychologist. She has an interest in mental health/developmental disorders and their risk factors.
LILLY GYIMES
PhD student
Lilly is studying the role of parenting in the development of emotion understanding in Williams syndrome. She also plans to train parents to use emotion validation with their children. Lilly has an MSc in Clinical Child Psychology and volunteers for children with developmental disabilities in Cambridgeshire.
LIBBY
Honorary Scientist
Libby is an ‘honorary scientist’ at the ELAN lab. She visited us 7 years ago with her brother to help with our research. Libby is currently working on a school project on scientists and sent us this picture!
JULIA JANOSCHKA
Intern
"I am a Psychology student from Germany and determined by my curiosity and passion for Psychology to be part of a project outside my comfort zone. Doing my Bachelor's degree in Psychology provides me an expanded base of knowledge in various fields of this science, and most important for this project: knowledge in Developmental and Cognitive Psychology."
Past Members
ESTHER NOELIA CHAPPA
Research Assistant
"I am a dedicated researcher with a strong interest in the role of environmental factors in bilingualism and cognitive development. With an MSc in Educational Neuroscience and practical experience in special needs education, my passion lies in investigating how parenting practices influence emotion understanding in individuals with diverse abilities"
ISABEL QUIROZ
Research Assistant
Isabel has been involved in running infant/toddler studies at the Birkbeck Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), including a very large testing protocol for the London Down Syndrome Consortium (LonDownS). She is currently collecting infant eye tracking data for us, while studying for a Master's degree in psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy (part-time) at Birkbeck, University of London.
RAHUL BHALE
Intern
Rahul is a student in the Seven-Year Medical Program at Boston University & Boston University School of Medicine. His interests include incorporating research in clinical settings in the fields of orthopedics and neurology.
STEFANIA CANGEMI
Erasmus Trainee
Stefania is a postgraduate student at the University of Verona in Italy. In collaboration with Hana D'Souza at the University of Cambridge, Stefania is working on observational data we collected from toddlers with Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome. Our aim is to understand more about how toddlers with neurodevelopmental disorders and their parents interact in naturalistic settings.
SIMONE GUBBINS
Student Volunteer
Simone is an MSc psychology student at Anglia Ruskin University. Under the supervision of Dr Fiona Richardson, Simone is currently using artificial neural networks to investigate sensitive periods and recovery implications after paediatric brain insult.
Simone has research interests in bilingualism, neurodevelopmental disorders, and traumatic brain injury, with a special focus on sensitive periods, and is pursuing a career as a clinical psychologist specialising in paediatric neuropsychology.
SHANNON DILKS
Student Volunteer
Shannon has been working at a children's foster home for boys with autism. She is very interested in understanding how family structure and relationships shape typical and atypical development, and is working towards a career as a clinical child psychologist.