Comenius ethos lives on

British Psychological Society member and Spearman Medal winner Dr Emily Homes has been selected as one of the two winners of the Comenius Early Career Psychologist Award 2011.

The award was given to the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA) by the Union of Psychologists' Associations of the Czech Republic, to be awarded to a young psychologist from Europe who has made an original contribution to psychology as a science and profession.

The selection committee noted: 'Dr Holmes is one of the foremost researchers in trauma, cognitive and emotional processing, and memory... Her distinctive theoretical contribution has been to link the limited field of imagery and cognitive psychology to the rich clinical and experiential material of emotional memories following trauma.'

Dr Holmes told The Psychologist: 'I am very honoured to receive this award from the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations and for the support of the BPS. It comes as a real encouragement for my team's research in experimental psychopathology. Interestingly, Comenius was a theorist and practitioner from the 1600s in the area of education research and learning. Our work seeking to better understand and modify psychopathology embraces "learning" in the domain of emotional processes, and it is exciting to see that the ethos of combining theory and practice is still strong four centuries on!'

See the May issue of the Psychologist for an article from Dr Holmes