I began working as a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at King's in June 2022. I teach a 2^nd year module and a 3^rd year module, focusing on drug use, addiction, psychopharmacology, gambling, and decision-making. Currently, I am actively researching (1) acute and long-term psychological and neural impacts of cannabis; (2) devices that can detect opioid overdose; (3) treatments for adolescent cannabis use disorder. My areas of expertise are: cannabis, ketamine, psychedelics, addiction, psychopharmacology, opioid overdose, reward processing, and fMRI in addiction studies. I aim to enhance our understanding of substance use disorder through comprehensive, interdisciplinary work, and improve the lives of people with problem drug use.

 Previously, I worked in the Department of Addictions as a Research Fellow from 2021 to 2022, working on a project with Professor Sir John Strang and Dr Basak Tas about opioid overdose and wearable devices that may be able to detect overdose. Before that, I worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit at UCL between 2016 and 2021 on two different projects. From 2017 to 2021, I coordinated the ‘CannTeen’ project which investigated the acute and chronic effects of cannabis in adolescents. From 2016 to 2017, I coordinated a clinical trial which examined ketamine as a treatment for alcohol dependence (KARE).

I received my PhD from UCL in 2016. My supervisors were Prof Val Curran and Prof Celia Morgan. The thesis was entitled ‘Drug and non-drug reward processing in cigarette and cannabis users’. I gained an undergraduate degree from Cambridge in 2012 in Natural Sciences with a specialism in Experimental Psychology.'

 Research Interests

• Cannabis
• Opioid overdose
• Addiction
• Ketamine as a treatment of addiction
• Adolescent drug use
• Reward processing
• Using fMRI to understand addiction

Teaching

I run the 3rd year 'Addictions' Psychology BSc module and teach on the 2nd year 'Choices' Psychology BSc module. I also teach on the Addictions MSc course. 

Expertise & Public Engagement

I have delivered numerous assemblies to schools across London about the impact of cannabis on adolescent development and my research into cannabis has been featured in national newspapers.