This page keeps a record of all the people who have been employed in my lab other than as postdocs, e.g. as pre-doctoral research assistants, technicians or support officers.

Former

Beth Nichol
2021 – 2022
Beth worked as the research assistant on the OCTAHEDRON project, where I’m a co-investigator; Prof Anya Hurlbert is the PI. Beth worked on public and patient involvement/engagement in the area of medical AI.

Adam Simmons
2012 – 2023
Adam is the Institute’s insect technician, responsible for care and husbandry of our locusts and praying mantises. He did all the husbandry for the “Man, Mantis and Machine” project. In 2017, he was also employed as a research assistant running psychophysics experiments on both humans and mantises.

Gareth Slack
Mar – Sep 2017

Gareth originally worked on the ASTEROID project while employed by local software company Fluid Pixel. Gareth created the artwork and animations as well as programming. We then employed him to help us add other vision tests. He’s now working for the School of Computing.

Carla Black
August 2016 – August 2017

Carla was a research assistant on the ASTEROID project: to develop a fun 3D vision test for children. She’s a qualified optometrist and also has finance and project management experience in industry – all very valuable skills for our project! After ASTEROID, Carla went on to be a research project manager for Newcastle University Medical School.

Therese Casanova

August 2016 – August 2017
Therese was a research assistant on the ASTEROID project: to develop a fun 3D vision test for children. She has an MSc in Health Psychology and previously worked as an administrator in a school, so she was familiar with the constraints busy schools are under when they kindly allow us to test their pupils’ vision. She is now on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme.

Jess Hugill
August 2016 – August 2017

Jess was a research assistant on the ASTEROID project: to develop a fun 3D vision test for children. She has an MSc in Psychology and previously worked as a primary school teacher, so she was used to working with children. After ASTEROID, she went on to a research assistant job at Durham University, in the School of Education.

Sheima Rafiq

August 2016 – August 2017

Sheima was a research assistant on the ASTEROID project: to develop a fun 3D vision test for children. She’s an orthoptist by training so brought valuable clinical skills to the project. Sheima returned to her orthoptics career with the NHS following the ASTEROID project.

Adam O’Neill
October 2014 – October 2017

Adam was the Project Support Officer on the ASTEROID project which aims to develop a fun 3D vision test for children.

James Burridge

Lab Member September 2012 – September 2013

James worked with me to develop Android software for 3D smartphones, developing the very first prototype of what became our Asteroid stereotest. He went on to work for Accenture.

Suzi Englebright

Lab Member Apr 2011 – Jul 2012

Suzi was the Project Administrator for an industry-funded project investigating user experience with 3D television. She now works in Newcastle University’s Finance & Planning department.

Kate Lane

Lab Member Aug 2010 – March 2011

Kate worked on a project with me and Dr Catherine O’Hanlon, studying a developmental pattern in children’s attention to colours and objects, using a touch screen monitor and RED eye tracking machine.