International Conference 2024 - Keynote Speaker: Professor Duncan Astle
Tuesday 5 September 2023
Duncan is the Gnodde Goldman Sachs Professor of Neuroinformatics at the Department of Psychiatry, and a Fellow of Robinson College, University of Cambridge. He is also a Group Leader at the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.
He leads a team of developmental systems and cognitive neuroscientists - The ‘4D Lab’ They use a series of analytical tools – sometimes called neuroinformatics – to address crucial translational and fundamental questions about childhood development. One of their main goals is to understand cognitive barriers to learning, often taking a so-called transdiagnostic approach.
Their work has been supported by the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council and various charitable foundations. In recent years Duncan was awarded the Early Career Prize by the British Association of Cognition Neuroscience (2017), the Salvesen Prize (2020), the Vice-Chancellor’s Engagement and Impact Award (2020), and a National Celebrating Neurodiversity Award (2022).
Q & A with Professor Duncan Astle
What do you love about being a researcher/educator?
So many things! Answering interesting questions, seeing early career researchers pursue their own interests, spending time with schools and families. Those are the things that really give me energy!
What are you working on right now?
One project we are currently working on is 'Belonging in School', a free resource for schools that guides them through inclusive educational policy making. It's the outcome of a lot of hard work to integrate research findings alongside lived experience, to produce something that is informative and practically useful for schools.
Why is it important and what impact do you hope it will have?
Everyone has a right to access a quality education. But for many children, learning in mainstream school poses many barriers and can leave them feeling alienated. The ambition of 'Belonging in School' is to support schools in creating locally effective inclusion policies. Not by telling schools what to do, but instead by guiding them through the process of creating, implementing and evaluating their own policies.
What other historic or current research are you particularly interested in and why?
I am really interested in research that queries existing diagnostic boundaries, because I think that many barriers children encounter in school do not align well with their formal status.
What do you hope will be researched in the future?
The role of anxiety in school experience, especially for neurodivergent children. And, ultimately, how can we create learning environments that are less anxiety producing.
If you could recommend one book or article to a member of the public interested in dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, it would be:
Astle, D. E., Holmes, J., Kievit, R., & Gathercole, S. E. (2022). Annual Research Review: The transdiagnostic revolution in neurodevelopmental disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 63(4), 397-417.
Tell us something interesting!
I really hate yoghurt. Really really hate it. I just thought you all ought to know that.
