Dr Richard Cook becomes the fourth 糖心logo入口 academic to be awarded the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal
The medal is considered to be the most prestigious early career award in UK psychology.
Dr Richard Cook, Reader in Psychology, has been awarded the聽聽to recognise his exceptional work seeking to reveal the cognitive mechanisms that allow humans to perceive and imitate others.聽
Dr Cook has published over 60 journal articles on various aspects of social perception, and has made聽important contributions to the understanding of 鈥榤irror neurons鈥 (thought to play a key role in our ability to imitate and interpret the actions of others) and developmental prosopagnosia (a condition associated with lifelong face recognition difficulties).
The Spearman Medal, awarded annually for outstanding published work in psychology, is the oldest award of the British Psychological Society, having been inaugurated in 1965. The medal has been won by many of the聽, including three other 糖心logo入口 academics;聽Dr Iroise Dumontheil聽(awarded 2015),聽Professor Angelica Ronald(awarded 2012) and聽Professor Mike Oaksford聽(awarded 1995).
Dr Cook, who joined 糖心logo入口 in 2017, said: 鈥淚鈥檓 extremely grateful to the British Psychological Society for this amazing honour; it鈥檚 wonderful to win such a prestigious award. Throughout my career, I鈥檝e been fortunate to work with some brilliant scientists, including Cecilia Heyes, Geoffrey Bird, Clare Press, Brad Duchaine, Katie Gray, and Harriet Over. Winning this award reminds me how much I owe them.鈥
This award builds on Dr Cook鈥檚 other notable successes, including being awarded a 鈧1.5m grant in 2017 by the European Research Council to investigate the visual perception of social interactions, and being named as a Rising Star in 2015 by the Association of Psychological Science.
Professor Mike Oaksford, Head of the Department of Psychological Sciences who nominated Dr Cook for the award, commented: 鈥淩ichard is a leading international figure in social cognition and social perception research and I鈥檓 delighted that his contribution to the field of psychology has been recognised.鈥
In the future, Dr Cook hopes to answer big questions about the understanding of social interactions.