Tessel Bazelmans

Tessel Bazelmans is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Birkbeck, University of London's Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD) within the School of Psychology. She holds a PhD from King’s College London and has extensive experience studying neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and ADHD in infants and children. Her current role involves leading the SENSE project, a collaboration with UCL and UCL Hospital investigating somatosensation in term and preterm infants.

Education: PhD in Developmental Psychology (King’s College London, 2019), supervised by Prof. Tony Charman and Prof. Emily J.H. Jones. MSc in Psychology (University of Leiden, Netherlands). BSc in Cognitive Science (University of Groningen, Netherlands).

Research focuses on early neurodevelopmental differences, combining behavioral and physiological measures. Key interests include sensory processing, attention, and temperament in neurotypical and neurodiverse populations. She leads the mid-childhood follow-up of the STAARS/SuperSTAARS studies, examining long-term outcomes in high-risk families.

Public engagement: Founder of BabyBrains (www.babybrains.info), translating research findings into accessible resources for parents and caregivers. Collaborates with the BASIS cohort and Medawar Pain and Somatosensory Labs.

Grants include Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (H2020) for her PhD and ongoing SENSE project funding. Her work has been published in journals like Autism Research, Psychological Medicine, and Brain Sciences.