Kate Woodcock

Kate carried out her PhD research (2005-2008) at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, supervised by Prof. Chris Oliver and Prof. Glyn Humphreys. Her work focused on understanding temper outbursts in people with a genetic developmental disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome. After Kate’s PhD she worked for just over two years at the Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, where she was involved in work aiming to better understand the difficulties faced by individuals with several different developmental disorders.

In January 2010 Kate was awarded an International Outgoing Marie Curie Fellowship by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. This fellowship supported her research for the three years between March 2011 and March 2014. During the first two years of the fellowship Kate worked with the Culture and Social Neuroscience Laboratory at the Department of Psychology, Peking University, China, and during the final year she returned to Birmingham. The focus of Kate’s work during this fellowship was on understanding how aspects of the environment – including someone’s immediate social surroundings and their broader cultural background – can impact on how they respond emotionally and how they control those emotions.

In March 2014, Kate took up the post of Lecturer in Atypical Development at the School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast. In September 2017, Kate left Queen’s and took up the post of Senior Lecturer in Applied Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.  In June 2021, Kate was promoted to the position of Reader in Applied Clinical Psychology.

In line with Kate’s long-term research interest in genetic neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Prader-Willi syndrome, Kate was elected as a trustee and member of the board of the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation in November 2019.