About my current job
I am a Professor of Child and Family Psychology, Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Wolfson College. My job involves teaching and research, including the development and testing of parenting interventions around the world, conducting intervention adaptation studies, randomised trials and systematic reviews, and advising policy makers.
Something important I learned during my time at EP
How to read a paper! I have rarely come across undergraduate courses that were expected to read so many scientific papers every single week, from day 1. It was as if text books didn't exist- a fantastic training!
How did my education influence my career path?
My main DPhil supervisor, Kathy Sylva, was a fantastic influence on my career - always perceptive, critical and encouraging - and knew how to make science fun. Bruce Henning encouraged me to think critically and to think that I could do a DPhil.
Fond memories of my time at EP
Coffee time. Labs where we had to do something with live cockroaches.
Did you have a favourite tutor/lecturer/prof, and how did they inspire you?
Favourites were my tutor Bruce Henning and supervisor Kathy Sylva. Influential lectures included Peter Bryant's - I was inspired by him to address in my own work causal questions with a combination of experimental and longitudinal studies, as laid out in his 1983 Nature paper, 'Categorizing sounds and learning to read-a causal connection.'
With the benefit of hindsight, do you have any advice you'd give your younger self?
Research gets better and better after the DPhil.
