Melissa Hines

Prof. Melissa Hines is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Education at the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology, with a Fellowship at Churchill College. Her research focuses on gender development, prenatal hormonal influences, and disorders of sex development. She leads the Gender Development Group, investigating how prenatal and postnatal factors interact to shape behavior and brain development. Previously, she held roles at UCLA's Department of Psychiatry and the University of London, with postdoctoral work on primate models of hormonal influences. Her work includes studies on congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), toy preferences, and the neurobiological underpinnings of gender-related behavior. She has been recognized with awards like the Shephard Ivory Franz Award and has authored Brain Gender (Oxford UP, 2004). Her research spans neuroscience, developmental psychology, and clinical studies, with publications in Annual Review of Neuroscience, Psychological Science, and others. Prof. Hines actively engages the public through media appearances and science festivals, promoting awareness of gender development research.

Her academic journey includes a BA from Princeton and a PhD from UCLA. She has supervised numerous studies on topics like corpus callosum morphology in CAH, cultural influences on color preferences, and the stability of gender-typed toy interests over decades. Her work bridges clinical, developmental, and neuroendocrine perspectives to understand gender diversity and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Publications highlight her focus on brain structure variations, behavioral outcomes in CAH, and the role of prenatal androgens in shaping cognition and behavior. Awards and leadership roles reflect her contributions to advancing interdisciplinary research in sex and gender studies.