The SHELL Study Team
Project Lead
Matt is a programme leader at the MRC-CBU and co-directs the SHELL Study. He’s been researching how people recognise speech (or “wreck a nice beach?”) for more than 25 years. In other projects he is using brain imaging to figure out which parts of the brain are at work when you’re listening, speaking or learning language.
Project Lead
Lizzie co-directs the SHELL study. She will be visiting schools with the team of research assistants to run the science activity days so you may see her around. She is excited to explore lots of interesting questions about children’s hearing and language skills as well as have lots of fun in the classroom.
Research Staff
James works on the design of the SHELL study iPad tasks and the analysis of behavioural data. His research interests focus on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying speech perception.
To be appointed
Research Coordinator
Bio coming soon!
Dr Louisa Field
Research Assistant
Louisa is part of the research assistant team and will be conducting data collection and delivering outreach activities to students as part of the SHELL study. Her research interests also include improving foreign language learning in Anglophone contexts.
Anaïs Pettecrew
Research Assistant
Anaïs is one of the research assistants who will be going into classrooms to run exciting outreach activities. She is looking forward to discovering more about children’s language and hearing and to inspire the next generation of scientists.
Alice Sullivan
Placement Student
Alice is a placement student from Cardiff University who will be assisting with delivering outreach activities in classrooms. She is interested to learn more about language development in young children and to teach them about the brain and senses.
SHELL Advisory Board
- Prof. Jenny Gibson (Professor of Neurodiversity and Developmental Psychology at the Faculty of Education)
- Dr Esther van Sluijs (Chief Scientific Officer – Adolescent Health Study, Director – Cambridge Epidemiology & Trials Unit)
- Dr Marina Salorio Corbetto (Specialist Research Audiologist)
- Dr Tamsin Holland Brown (paediatrician and health entrepreneur)
SHELL Team Alumni
- Dr Jacqueline von Seth (Former Graduate Student) – Jacqueline was a PhD student in the Davis Group. She studies how the brain understands speech by using both sound and visual cues, like lip movements. Jacqueline contributed to the design of the audiovisual speech task for the SHELL study.
- Dr Laura Oxley (Research Coordinator) – Laura coordinated and managed the day-to-day aspects of the SHELL study in the earlier stages of the project, including initial school recruitment and setting up this website. Laura is a postdoctoral researcher interested in inclusion and wellbeing in schools. Laura now works as a Senior Teaching Associate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
