Interim Director May 2021 - August 2021

SK298 Brain, Mind and Mental Health (Sep 2020 - present)SDK228 The Science of the Mind: Investigating Mental Health (Sep 2016 - Aug 2020)Responsibility for supporting approximately 30 undergraduate students per year, delivering online tutorials, marking assignments and providing feedback, moderating online forums, preparing subject guides and answering questions via phone/email. My broad experience, passion for the subject, and interest in effective communication helps me support learners in a style that is accessible, engaging and informative. Many students have contacted me personally to offer their thanks:"Thanks to you I now no longer hide behind the couch when I hear the word neurotransmitter!""Ian's enthusiasm for this subject was infectious. It is a difficult subject to grasp: very deep and scientific. However, Ian's down to earth approach made it seem easier. He explained everything so well. It was a pleasure to attend his tutorials.""Ian was by far the best tutor I have had with the OU. He was enthusiastic and really brought the tutorials to life.""Rather than tell you what you had done was incorrect, he suggested what you could have done, providing examples and a different perspective. [He] always provided the right balance of help, if it were to see a question in a slightly different way to understand and answer it, or to provide the necessary study skills that were needed to move you on in your learning."

Laboratory investigations included how primitive regions of the brain are involved in modulating our experience of pain and used a combination of electrical recording of neural activity, functional imaging, and anatomical study of the nervous system. In parallel with laboratory research, a classroom-based research project - BrainLab - developed a new model of public engagement in higher education that combined undergraduate science communications training, delivery of science workshops in local schools, and education research; the project was nominated for a Guardian Higher Education Award and the general model described in the journal PLoS Biology (Devonshire & Hathway, 2014).Whilst at Nottingham I participated in 'The Leadership Programme', a six-month joint initiative by the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham to provide delegates with vital skills to lead and inspire individuals and groups in different occupational environments.Other selected duties: panel member of the University's Animal Welfare Ethical Review Board, supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students, publishing research articles, grant writing, creating the research group website (www.nottingham.ac.uk/devnoci), and managing the group's Twitter account (@devnoci).

SDK226 Biological Psychology: Exploring the BrainResponsibility for approximately 30 undergraduate students per year in module, delivering face-to-face tutorials as well as providing instruction via ‘distance learning’ or ‘e-learning’, e.g. interactive online seminars, online forums, preparing subject guides and answering questions via phone/email. Face-to-face tutorials were highly interactive and often involved having to create imaginative methods to teach complex concepts to individuals often at the beginning of their university studies. Student-centred tasks were essential in order to provide engagement and learning. Topics included statistics & experimental design, synaptic pharmacology, language, memory, sensory & motor neuroscience, development, and emotion.

Our company offered a range of professional services at the junction between neuroscience and education. A small selection of clients and projects that were undertaken between 2008 - 2012 are listed below.> Bahrain Ministry of Education & CfBT Education TrustDay-long workshop on the scientific background and provision of teaching services for gifted and talented school pupils.> The University of OxfordOrganisation and implementation of a multi-site, multi-user education research project that also involved Gloucestershire Local Education Authority and CfBT Education Trust. The project investigated how academic performance in primary school pupils was influenced by an awareness of how brains work.> NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts)Provision of website material on the 'neuroscience of learning' and 'neuroscience and society'; material included interviews with top scientists to encourage school children to consider a career in science.

Laboratory investigations in Oxford used a range of optical imaging, electrical recording, histological, and behavioural techniques to investigate brain plasticity and sensory function. These included the impact of environmental enrichment on brain structure and sensory function, how general anaesthesia influences global measures of brain function, and the design and development of physiological measurement tools to aid monitoring of animals under general anaesthesia in veterinary practice. Whilst at Oxford I enjoyed senior roles in defining research strategy and held two Home Office Project Licenses, having overall responsibility for a number of in vivo and in vitro projects that addressed both fundamental and pre-clinical enquiries in neuroscience.Non-laboratory were also pursued whilst at Oxford. These studies were based on the importance that young people's intrinsic motivation to learn has on future academic success. I studied pupils' attitudes to learning and whether we can use what we know about brain plasticity to change these attitudes. The relevance of this new style of research, in which neuroscience meets education, was being increasingly recognised by scientists, policy makers and educationalists. My fascination with this new field of 'Educational Neuroscience' encouraged me to explore potential policy implications in Westminster as coordinator of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning & Education.Other selected duties: Chair of the Genetic Modification Committee; member of the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review board for the Departments of Pharmacology and Biochemistry and the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit; member of the University-wide Ethical Review Board for the promotion of the 3Rs in Animal Research; Departmental Biological Safety Officer; responsible for research budgets; delivery of Departmental seminars; supervision of undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral members of the laboratory.

The knowledge and skills I acquired during my PhD were used to investigate how brain activity causes changes in the blood supply to the brain, a phenomenon without which brain imaging techniques could not exist. To do this, I performed a number of novel studies that altered the brain’s metabolic state with drugs of abuse and by directly stimulating various modulatory regions. I was involved in technique development and optimisation, as well as establishing mathematical models at the level of blood vessel dynamics that integrated the brain's electrical activity with data from imaging techniques. A total of 11 journal articles resulted from my PhD studies and brief post-doctoral period at the University of Sheffield.