Sophie Mae Scott

Biography Professor Sophie Scott is the Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She studies the neurobiology of vocal communication, and has carried out research using brain imaging, cross cultural studies, acoustic analyses, psychometric measures and behaviour to ask questions about how speech is processed as a sound, the neural basis of speech and sound processing and the social roles of vocalizations. She has pioneered neuroscientific studies of non-verbal emotional vocalisations, and has developed a specific interest in the perception and production of laughter. She gave the Royal Society Christmas Lectures in 2017, was awarded a CBE in the Queens Birthday Honours in 2020 and was awarded the Royal Society Faraday Prize in 2021.