Royal Society University Research Fellow receives Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize

01 October 2015

Royal Society University Research Fellow Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore has been awarded the 2015 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for her research on understanding emotional and social brain development during adolescence.

The Prize is endowed with one million Swiss francs.

The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize rewards scientific work of high social relevance to the personality development of children and young people. It is of great importance to the Jacobs Foundation that scientific findings from interdisciplinary research should be applied in practice. 

Blakemore’s research shows that in adolescence changes occur in the processing of emotional and social information about other people, as well as self-awareness and decision-making. Her findings demonstrate that neural responses to social exclusion, risky decisions and the interpretation of social emotions continue to develop during adolescence. 

Professor Blakemore is Deputy Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She will be presented with her prize on December 4, 2015, at an award ceremony at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.