I am a current postdoctoral researcher, where my work focuses on the fundamental question in human visual cognition: how do we perceive faces? My research spans the full arc of face perception: from the moment a face captures our attention in a crowded scene, to the complex processes of learning and recognising individuals over time.

Faces are among the most information-rich stimuli we encounter, and yet our ability to detect, learn, and recognise them happens with remarkable speed and efficiency. Understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind this, and why it sometimes fails, is the focus of my research questions.

I completed my PhD at the University of Kent in 2024, where I used a combination of behavioural and eye-tracking methods to investigate the cognitive templates for human face detection. My doctoral work focused particularly on how we locate faces in complex, cluttered scenes, and which facial features are critical to triggering that initial detection response. This work laid the groundwork for my ongoing interest in what the mind "expects" a face to look like, and how those expectations shape perception.

In my current position, I am working with Professor Holger Wiese at Durham University on a project examining individual differences in face learning, exploring why some people are significantly better at forming robust face representations than others. This is a multi-method project combining behavioural testing, mobile eye-tracking, and EEG, allowing us to capture both the behavioural signatures and neural underpinnings of face learning across individuals

More broadly, I am committed to studying face perception in naturalistic contexts, moving beyond controlled laboratory stimuli toward real-world conditions that better reflect everyday cognitive demands. My interests span the full range of face perception phenomena, from pareidolia (the perception of faces in inanimate objects) to the recognition of familiar individuals.

I welcome collaborations from researchers with shared interests, bringing diverse methods and perspectives to how we research face perception.