Sharlene D. Newman

Dr. Sharlene D. Newman is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama and Executive Director of the Alabama Life Research Institute. Her interdisciplinary research bridges psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and biomedical engineering, utilizing neuroimaging techniques to study cognitive processes including language comprehension, executive function, and problem-solving.

She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, providing a foundation in both engineering approaches and neuroscience applications. Her work employs fMRI, EEG, and other neurophysiological methods to investigate neural correlates of higher-order cognition.

Research interests include cognitive control mechanisms, mathematical cognition, language-semantics interactions, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neuroimaging methodology. She directs research projects examining how cognitive processes are implemented in the brain across typical and atypical populations.