Former Lancaster psychology lecturer Susan Gathercole OBE has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science at the July graduation ceremonies.

She is a research psychologist interested in how working memory and other cognitive processes impact on children’s educational achievements and the ways in which these constraints can be overcome. She advocates understanding neurodiversity in terms of individual characteristics rather than classification into rigid diagnostic categories.

Professor Gathercole was the Unit Director at the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit from 2011 to 2018.

She began her career as a lecturer in Psychology at Lancaster University in 1988 and subsequently held professorial positions at universities of Bristol, Durham, York and Cambridge, where she is Emeritus Professor.

She is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 2016 was awarded an OBE for services to psychology and education.