Hannah Critchlow

Dr Hannah Critchlow is a neuroscientist and science speaker with a grounding in neuropsychiatry. Her academic research focuses on cellular and molecular neuroscience. In practical applications Hannah asks how questions about how our minds work, how do our perceptions of the world affect our decision-making, and how do fear and stress affect our behaviours?

Hannah decided upon a career in neuroscience as a teenager after working as a nursing assistant at St Andrew’s Hospital in Northampton. Following her PhD she spent a year a a researcher at the Institute for the Future of the Mind. Today she’s a Science Outreach Fellow at Magdalene College Cambridge and is dedicated to demystifying the workings of the human brain on radio, TV and as a live event speaker. Her first book Consciousness: A LadyBird Expert, was published in 2018. She has been part of the 2018 judging panel for the Wellcome Trust Science Book, and in 2017 she co-presented the BBC Tomorrow’s World Live interactive science series.

In 2014 Hannah was named as one of the Top 100 UK scientists by the Science Council for her work in communicating science to the public. She was named as one of Cambridge Universities ‘Inspirational and Successful Women in Science’. During her PhD she was awarded a Cambridge University Fellowship and as an undergraduate she received three University prizes as Best Biologist. That was in 2013.

Six years later Hannah appeared as an expert on Channel 4’s Secret Life of 4 Year Olds and 2019 also saw the publication of Hannah’s second book The Science of Fate.