I have been a Senior Research Associate at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit since January 2023, within the team of Dr Bob Carlyon.

I have a particular research focus on Cochlear Implants, a surgical device that electrically stimulates the auditory nerve. Many users of this implant understand speech well in quiet conditions, but even the most successful struggle in noisy situations. This is partly because Cochlear Implants can stimulate too many neurons at once, making it difficult to perceive the fine details in everyone's voices.

I currently research methods to better control which neurons are stimulated with Cochlear Implants. This is done by combining measurements from the users’ own implant and predictions from computer models.

Thanks to the very generous help of volunteer Cochlear Implant users, we can evaluate the success/failure of these new stimulation methods by inviting them over for a battery of perceptual tests. We also measure the neural response to our new stimulation methods using electro-encephalography (EEG), which records the brain response with electrodes on the scalp. This helps us to understand if details from the sounds CI users listen to are being blurred together at some stage in the brain, and whether we can avoid it.

Prior to this role, I worked as a developer with Oticon, Oticon Medical (only shortly, the company was divested a few weeks after I started), and as a Research Associate and Research Assistant at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. I obtained my PhD in 2018 at the Technical University of Denmark under the supervision of Pr Bastian Epp and Pr Jeremy Marozeau.