Dr Delia Fuhrmann
Principal Investigator
Delia is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at King’s College London and leads the LIFE-MAP Lab. Her research is currently funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and UK Research and Innovation. Prior to joining King’s, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University College London and her BSc Hons Psychology at the University of St Andrews.
Dr Kathryn Bates
Research Fellow
Kathryn is a Research Fellow in the lab and a Co-Investigator on the UKRI-funded UNITE Project. Kathryn previously worked on the SDA-SPA Project in the lab. Kathryn also produces The Science or Fiction Podcast and regularly writes for parents, teachers and young people on educational platforms. Kathryn completed her PhD in Psychology at University College London. You can find out more about her work on her personal website.
Dr Laura Riddleston
Visiting Researcher
Laura is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Queen Mary University of London in the Youth Resilience Unit and a Visiting Researcher in the lab. She is currently working on the YLS project, a UKRI-funded project to develop a new measure of loneliness in young people. Before joining Queen Mary, Laura was a Postdoctoral Researcher at KCL, investigating the cognitive correlates of youth loneliness. Laura completed her PhD in Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry at KCL.
Dr Hannah Slack
Affiliate Postdoc
Hannah is a Postdoctoral Quantitative Research Associate at KCL. She is currently part of U-Belong, an MRC-funded project that aims to develop new methods to measure and understand social connection, loneliness and belonging in the student population. Prior to joining King’s, Hannah completed a PhD in Psychology at the University of Nottingham, where she investigated the development of agency across adolescence. You can find more information via hannahslack.com.
Ms Ayla Pollmann
PhD Student
Ayla is a PhD student at KCL researching adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence. Her research is uses complex systems approaches like network models and large developmental samples like ALPSAC. She is supervised by Dr Delia Fuhrmann and Dr Caroline Catmur. Ayla graduated from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands with an MSc in Clinical Psychology and an MSc in Youth 0-21, Society and Policy. Find out more about her via Ayla’s CV.
Ms Chloe Carrick
PhD Student
Chloe is an MRC-DTP funded PhD student in the lab. She is interested in environmental predictors and mental health outcomes of individual variability in the pace of adolescent brain maturation. Her research will use nonlinear modelling approaches and emerging developmental samples such as ABCD. Chloe previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at UCL. She also holds a Research Master degree in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from Maastricht University.
Ms Karina Benza
PhD Student
Karina is a PhD student in the lab, researching the aetiology of conduct disorder across different cultures. Karina holds a BSc degree in Forensic Psychology and, as part of her course, worked at HM Rochester prison with young prisoners as a placement student. She completed her MSc Global Mental Health at King’s College London.
Ms Georgina Du Mello Gibbard
DClinPsy Student
Georgina is a Trainee Clinical Psychologist. Apart from her clinical work within the NHS, Georgina is researching resilience factors and the impact of poly-victimisation on mental health outcomes in war trauma-exposed young women in her doctoral thesis. Georgina is an Integrative Counsellor (MBACP Accred) with over 5 years’ clinical experience, holding a Master of Counselling Degree at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Ms Hannah Harwood
DClinPsy Student
Hannah is training as a clinical psychologist with King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. She is researching youth loneliness and socioeconomic marginalisation with the lab for her thesis. Hannah is also an experienced CAMHS cognitive behavioural therapist, having completed a postgraduate diploma at King’s in CBT for children and young people. She also has an MSc in Health Psychology from University College London.
Ms Lara Acosta Siljestrom
NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellow
Lara is an NIHR Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow in the lab. Lara is currently pursuing an MSc in Applied Statistical Modelling & Health Informatics at KCL. As part of her Fellowship, she will also carry out a research project modelling sensitive periods of mental health and brain development in childhood and youth. Prior to joining the lab, Lara completed her undergraduate studies at KCL in 2022.
Ms Lauren Turner
Research Assisstant
Lauren is a Research Assistant at the QMUL Youth Resilience Unit and a Visiting Researcher in the lab working on the UNITE project. The project investigates how loneliness develops in youth from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds using a multi-method, co-produced approach. Lauren recently completed her MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences at University College London, where she also worked on placement as a research assistant. She holds a BA in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford.
Ms Amanah Bokhari
Young Person Co-Researcher
Ms Leandra Gyekye
Young Person Co-Researcher
Lab Alumni
Amber Inman - Placement Student
Man Shiu Kwok - Placement Student
Afraa Din - Young Person Advisor
Mariam Shah - Young Person Advisor
Shengyang Chen - KCL Research Experience Student
Eleonora Contini - KCL Research Experience Student
Zara Kulbayeva - KCL Research Experience Student
Lea Michel - Vising PhD Student