Sophie Andrews

Sophie Andrews is a Conjoint Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a Senior Research Fellow – DECRA Fellow at UNSW Psychology. She also holds a conjoint Research Fellow position at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Her work bridges academic research with clinical practice as a registered clinical neuropsychologist, focusing on translational neuroscience that addresses real-world health challenges related to cognitive aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Andrews completed her DPsych (Clinical Neuropsychology) at Monash University in 2013, where her doctoral thesis investigated the mirror neuron system in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG. Prior to joining UNSW and NeuRA in 2019, she was affiliated with the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University, where she held a fellowship from the Huntington's Disease Society of America.

Her primary research focuses on how lifestyle interventions can improve brain and cognitive health and reduce dementia risk, with particular emphasis on the neuroscience and neuropsychology of habit formation and change in aging. She combines neuroimaging, cognitive, and psychological approaches to understand how improved knowledge of habit formation can inform better lifestyle behavior change interventions. Additional research interests include non-pharmacological approaches for maintaining brain health in neurodegenerative diseases, with a special focus on Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trajectory in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying habit formation in aging populations and their application to dementia prevention. Her work frequently employs multimodal approaches, combining behavioral assessments with neuroimaging techniques to examine brain structure and function in relation to cognitive performance. A significant portion of her recent work centers around the LEISURE study, a longitudinal randomized controlled trial examining multi-modal lifestyle interventions for dementia risk reduction in healthy older adults.

• Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (2021-2025)
• Huntington's Disease Society of America HD Human Biology Project Fellowship (2016-2019)

Dr. Andrews has secured substantial grant funding for her research, including an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award ($437,000), multiple Dementia Australia Research Foundation grants, and several UNSW Ageing Futures Institute Seed Project Grants. Her work demonstrates strong collaboration across institutions, with frequent co-authorship with researchers from NeuRA, Monash University, and international partners. While specific student supervision isn't detailed in the provided text, her leadership of multiple research projects suggests active mentoring of junior researchers and students.

Her research is closely tied to the LEISURE study team and the broader NeuRA cognitive neuroscience research group, where she contributes to developing and testing lifestyle interventions for cognitive health. Her work bridges laboratory-based neuroscience with community-based interventions, creating a translational research pipeline from basic mechanisms to clinical applications.