Hannah Critchlow

Hannah Critchlow
Critchlow by the River Cam
Born	Hannah Marion Critchlow 1980 (age 43–44) Leicester, England
Nationality	British
Education	Brunel University (BSc) University of Cambridge (PhD)
Children	1
Scientific career
Fields	Neuroscience
Institutions	University of Cambridge University of Oxford
Thesis	The Role of Dendritic Spine Plasticity in Schizophrenia (2008)
Website	neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/member/hannahcritchlow

Hannah Marion Critchlow (born 1980) is a British scientist, writer and broadcaster. Her academic research has focused on cellular and molecular neuroscience.^[1][2][3][4] In 2014 the Science Council named her as one of the ten leading "communicator scientists" in the UK.^[5] In 2019 Nature listed her as one of Cambridge Universities "Rising Stars in Biological Sciences".^[6] In 2022 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Brunel University for her work in neuroscience and communication.^[7]

Critchlow decided on a career in neuroscience as a teenager after working as a nursing assistant at St Andrew's Hospital.^[8][9][10] She studied Cell and Molecular Biology at Brunel University,^[9][10] where she was awarded a First Class degree in 2003 along with three undergraduate University Prizes.^[11] While studying at Brunel she had secured a work placement from GlaxoSmithKline, who with the Medical Research Council provided a CASE Award for her doctoral^[12] studies at the University of Cambridge.^[9][11]

Following completion of her PhD, Critchlow spent a year as a Kingsley Bye-Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge^[11] and then a further year as a researcher at the Institute for the Future of the Mind,^[11] funded by the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford.^[13] In 2008 she returned to Cambridge, where she has been professionally based ever since, apart from a one-year secondment to the British Neuroscience Association in 2010–2011.^[11][8]

In parallel with her research career, Critchlow began to establish herself as an effective science communicator and public face of science. She took part in a Rising Stars programme run by the University of Cambridge's Public Engagement team in 2011^[14] and, together with the cosmologist Andrew Pontzen, produced a series of Naked Shorts on their research for the award-winning podcast The Naked Scientists.^[11][14] A series of talks developed by Critchlow to take to schools and public festivals led to her giving a talk on "brain myths" at the Hay Literary Festival in 2015 that attracted national and international media interest.^[15][16][17] This led in turn to her being commissioned by Penguin Books to write an introductory book on Consciousness^[18] and to presenting Tomorrow's World Live for the BBC^[19] and Family Brain Games.^[20] In 2017 Critchlow was appointed as a Science Outreach Fellow by Magdalene College, Cambridge^[11][8][18] She was a judge for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize.^[21] In 2019 she was elected member of the prestigious European Dana Alliance of the Brain and named by Nature as one of Cambridge University's 'Rising Stars in Life Sciences' ^[6] in recognition for her achievements in science engagement. That same year her second book was published called The Science of Fate and made it onto the Sunday Times Bestseller list.^[22]

• Critchlow, Hannah (25 August 2022). Joined up Thinking: The Power of Collective Intelligence to Change Our Lives. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781529398397.
• Critchlow, Hannah (2 May 2019). The Science of Fate: Why Your Future is More Predictable Than You Think. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1473659285.
• Critchlow, Hannah (14 June 2018). Consciousness. illus. Stephen Player. London, England: Penguin, Ladybird Books. ISBN 978-0-7181-8911-2.

• Critchlow, Hannah M; Herrington, Paul; Gunton, Simon (1 February 2012). "Inside an unquiet mind: Music and science join forces to explore mental ill health". EMBO Reports. 13 (2): 95–99. doi:10.1038/embor.2011.255. PMC 3271342. PMID 22240971.
• Critchlow, HM; Maycox, PR; Skepper, JN; Krylova, O (August 2006). "Clozapine and haloperidol differentially regulate dendritic spine formation and synaptogenesis in rat hippocampal neurons". Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. 32 (4): 356–365. doi:10.1016/j.mcn.2006.05.007. PMID 16844384. S2CID 33783762.
• Critchlow, HM; Payne, A; Griffin, DK (August 2006). "Genes and proteins involved in the control of meiosis". Cytogenetic and Genome Research. 105 (1): 4–10. doi:10.1159/000078002. PMID 15218251. S2CID 46245478.

• Official site