Janette Atkinson

Janette Atkinson serves as Professor of Psychology with an MRC ESS Special Appointment at University College London (UCL), where she has maintained continuous faculty status since 1993 following prior research roles at Cambridge University, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Colorado. Her institutional affiliation centers within UCL's Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, operating under broader neuroscience frameworks.

Her pioneering research spans developmental visual neuroscience with emphases on infant vision development, neuropsychological spatial processing in children, and clinical conditions like Williams Syndrome. Key methodologies include neonatal MRI/fMRI analysis, premature infant visual screening protocols, and longitudinal studies of visual attention maturation. Current investigations focus on executive function development trajectories and visual sequelae in high-risk infant populations.

Major recognitions include:

• Young Inventor's Award from MRC (1989) for Cambridge Crowding Cards diagnostic tool
• Election to Academy of Medical Sciences (2002) and Academia Europaea (2008)
• Kurt Koffka Medal (2009) and Vision Sciences Society's Davida Teller Award (2016)
• Ohio State University's Distinguished Speaker Series invitation (1992)

As an Ordinary Member of the Academy of Europe (elected 2008) in the Human Mind and Its Complexity section, her work bridges experimental psychology, clinical neuroscience, and pediatric ophthalmology through sustained collaboration with medical research councils and international vision science consortia.