The atmosphere in college is very friendly,
it's almost like a family.
Professor Jon Simons
BSc (Aberdeen), PhD, FRSB
Official Fellow; Director of Studies in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Deputy Head of the School of Biological Sciences
Jon Simons studied Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, where he became particularly interested in the field of neuropsychology, which aims to understand psychological processes by examining how they become dysfunctional in people with brain injury or neurological illness. This interest brought him to Cambridge, where he undertook a PhD at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Chaucer Road investigating patterns of memory impairment and preservation in different forms of dementia.
Having established an enduring research interest in human memory, Jon moved to a post-doctoral position at Harvard University where he gained experience using functional neuroimaging to identify areas of the brain that are active during different stages of the retrieval of information from memory. On returning to the UK, he took up a senior research fellowship at UCL before moving back to Cambridge, where he is now principal investigator in the Memory Laboratory at the Department of Psychology. Jon's work has been recognised with the 19th Experimental Psychology Society Prize, a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, the Memory Disorders Research Society Laird Cermak Award, and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology and the Association for Psychological Science.
In January 2020, Jon was appointed Deputy Head of the School of Biological Sciences. His work for the School involves the strategic development of cross-Departmental research initiatives aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary interactions, including the School-wide Research Themes. He also has a strong interest in efforts to improve the research culture, such as in widening participation, increasing the diversity of those in leadership roles, empowering early-career researchers and professional services staff, and exploring opportunities for institutional incentivisation of open research practices.
Further details about Jon's research can be found at the Memory Laboratory page.