Dr Ashok Jansari

Dr. Jansari has been working in the field of neuropsychology for over 25 years. He studied Experimental Psychology at King’s College, Cambridge followed by a doctorate at the University of Sussex and then a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. During his training, he studied under some of the most important neuropsychologists and neuroscientists in the world, Antonio Damasio, Ralph Adolphs, Alan Parkin and Rosaleen McCarthy.

Dr. Jansari’s expertise is in mental brain functions we use everyday such as memory and face-recognition. He is one of the UK's experts on face-recognition including face-blindness (also known as 'prosopagnosia') and exceptional face memory (known as 'super-recognition'). Some of the latter work was done in conjunction with London's Metropolitan Police who are the first police force in the world to strategically use serving officers with exceptional face-memory to apprehend criminal suspects. He has also developed a revolutionary assessment of how we organise and plan behaviour, known as JEF© (the Jansari assessment of Executive Functions). His work on memory disorders is exploring the detection of dementia at earlier time points than is currently possible by clinicians. Early detection will mean that support can be put into place to ‘preserve’ more of the individual before the devastating effects of dementia set in.

Dr. Jansari’s expertise has meant that he has become a frequent contributor to public engagement with science through TV (both national TV such as the BBC and Channel 4 as well as internationally), radio and print media as well as annual public lectures as part of International Brain Awareness Week. In addition, he has lectured extensively throughout Europe, North America, South America, India, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. For this work, he was nominated for a British Academy Charles Darwin Award for communicating science to non-specialist audiences.