LONDON – Dr. Angelica Ronald, of Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences, has won a major prize for her significant impact upon the field of psychological science, according to a press release by Birkbeck, University of London.

She collected the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions in San Francisco on 22 May in San Francisco at the convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Dr Ronald said: “I am very honored to receive this award from the APS. I am interested in genetic and environmental risk factors, and am fortunate to work in a fascinating area of research.”

Dr. Ronald conducts scientific research at Birkbeck’s Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, and she is the director of Birkbeck’s Genes Environment Lifespan laboratory, which she established in 2011.

Her research aims to identify and understand genetic and environmental causal risk factors for complex neuropsychiatric disorders and their related traits. For over 10 years she has conducted research into the causes of autism and autistic traits. In her research she has employed family, twin, and genome-wide association study designs, amongst others, and she works on several large scale cohort studies in the UK and internationally.

Her research has shown that autism and autistic traits in the general population appear to lie on a continuum, with the same causal risk factors implicated for both autistic traits and the clinical condition.

Dr. Ronald, 35, completed her PhD in Quantitative Genetics at King’s College London in 2006, and she has worked at Birkbeck since 2007. The mother-of-two also said that staff at Birkbeck help young female researchers develop their scientific careers. She added: “Birkbeck has been extremely supportive. There are ample resources and terrific mentoring for early career scientists.”

ONE OF THE ‘BRIGHTEST MINDS’

Dr. Ronald was one of five recipients of the Janet Taylor Spence Award. In her award letter, Elizabeth A. Phelps, President of the APS, wrote:  “I am delighted to commend this remarkable milestone in your career. It places you among the brightest minds in our field, setting an impressively high standard for the award in years to come…I look forward to your continued participation in APS and your continued success as a leader in the science of psychology.”

ACADEMIC AWARDS

Dr. Ronald has received numerous awards for her research, including the 2012 Spearman Medal from the British Psychological Society and the Behavior Genetics Association Thomson Award. Among hundreds of candidates from all fields of science and both the public and private sector, last year Dr. Ronald was one of five on the shortlist in the 2013 Women of the Future Science Award, in which she was highly commended for her research into autism and psychotic experiences.