Professor Usha Goswami

Professor Usha Goswami is the Director for the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Professor of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience and a Fellow of St. John’s College, University of Cambridge.

Before joining the University of Cambridge in 2003 as a Professor of Education, Usha Goswami was the Professor of Cognitive Developmental Psychology at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. Usha has been a Lecturer in Psychology at St. John's College, University of Oxford, and Meton College, University of Oxford, as well as Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

She received her D.Phil in Developmental Psychology from the University of Oxford, where she had also been awarded her BA (Hons) in Experimental Psychology. Usha was awarded a PGCE in Primary Education from the University of London.

Over the course of her career Usha Goswami has received a number of awards, including the Fellowship of The Royal Society in 2021, the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) honour in the New Year list 2021, the membership of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2021, the John Nisbet Fellowship 2020 (awarded by BERA for lifetime contribution to educational practice), the Yidan Prize (awarded for research excellence in education), the British Psychology Society Spearman Medal (awarded for early career research excellence), the Norman Geschwind-Rodin Prize (a Swedish award for research excellence in the field of dyslexia). Usha has been given research fellowships from the National Academy of Education (USA), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), and the Leverhulme Trust. 

In 2013 she was elected Fellow of the British Academy. Usha has advised on the National Curriculum and the National Literacy Project, was one of the five scientific leaders of the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing (2008), and one of the three UK members of the Managing Committee of the European Concerted Action on Learning Disorders as a Barrier to Human Development (COST-A8). Usha has been a member of the ESRC Research Grants Board (1998-2000), a member of the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board of the Medical Research Council (1999-2003), and of the Cross Board Group of the Medical Research Council (2001-2003).

Usha is a Fast Track Editor for Developmental Science, Editor of Applied Psycholinguistics (2001-2005) and has been on the editorial advisory boards for journals including Reading and Writing, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Cognitive Development, Mind Brain and Education, Annals of Dyslexia, Trends in Neuroscience in Education, Psychological Bulletin and Perspectives in Child Development.