Professor Angelica Ronald (GEL Lab Co-director and GEL lab founder)

Email: a.ronald@bbk.ac.uk

Twitter: @Gelironald

Professor Angelica Ronald is director of the Genes Environment Lifespan (GEL) laboratory and Professor of Psychology and Genetics at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development within the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck. Professor Ronald is also a visiting academic at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and completed her PhD in quantitative genetics at King’s College London. Her thesis and postdoctoral research focused on the genetic and environmental causes of autism spectrum disorders and autistic traits. Her research spans longitudinal, quantitative and molecular genetic research into the causes of autism, ADHD, psychotic experiences and co-occurrence of psychopathology across childhood and adolescence. Another line of research aims to investigate the genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in behavioural traits in infancy with relevance to complex psychiatric conditions in later life. As well as quantitative and molecular genetic methodology, her research involves techniques from developmental cognitive neuroscience and measurement development. Together, these lines of research aim to identify and understand the genetic and environmental causes of complex disorders (such as autism and schizophrenia) and their comorbidity across the lifespan from infancy to adulthood. Professor Ronald has received many awards for her research, including the Janet Taylor Spence award from the Association for Psychological Science and the British Psychological Society  Spearman Medal. In 2020 she co-founded the London Genetics Network.

Funding

Professor Ronald has received research funding from the following research bodies and charities: Autism Speaks, the Bloomsbury Colleges consortium, the British Academy, Birkbeck’s Faculty of Science, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, Simons Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation.

Training

BA (Class I), Oxford University 1997-2000, Experimental Psychology

PhD in Quantitative Genetics, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London 2001-2005

Autism Speaks-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London 2005-2007

Publications

Please visit Professor Ronald’s Birkbeck web page for a full list of her publications.