Congratulations to the winner of the Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions to Psychology 2024 

Dr Fiske's award-winning research focused on understanding the development of early years executive functions, particularly inhibitory control, and the associated brain mechanisms.  

She carried out her doctoral research at the University of Oxford, where she worked on a large and longitudinal study to examine development of attention and high-level cognitive skills in the first two years of a person's life.  

Despite a global pandemic, Dr Fiske's research was able to follow the same group of children in the first, second and fourth years of their lives, which provided fascinating and new insights. 

In addition to the award from the BPS, her PhD research has also been recognised as outstanding by the International Congress of Infant Studies (ICIS) in 2024 and by the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) in 2023 for its credibility in neuroscience.  

Since completing her PhD, Dr Fiske has been awarded funding to work as a visiting post-doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, to advance and adapt existing analytical techniques for infant Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies.  

In September 2024, she started a lectureship in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University, to begin independent research as part of the Infant and Child Development Lab. 

On winning the BPS award, Dr Fiske said: 

"I'm honoured and delighted to receive this award! It is certainly not easy to complete a PhD during a pandemic, let alone a longitudinal study with infants and young children, so I am incredibly pleased that my research has been recognised with this award.  

"As such, I would like to offer my gratitude to the hundreds of families who participated in this research as part of the Oxford Early Executive Functions study - your contributions are invaluable, and it has been a pleasure to be a part of your child's early years.   

"Finally, a massive thank you is owed to my PhD supervisors, Dr Karla Holmboe and Professor Gaia Scerif, for their incredible support and mentorship. They have continually showcased excellent science and research practice, and I am grateful to have learned from their expertise, which I will take with me as I now begin my independent research journey." 

Nominations for the Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions to Psychology 2025 will open on 18 August 2025. Visit the award webpage to find out more about applying and the award criteria.