Our People

Meet our amazing team of staff who will be working to bring our vision to life!

Challenge leads

Colin Foster

Colin Foster

Challenge Lead, Reader in Mathematics Education

Colin is a Reader in Mathematics Education in the Department of Mathematics Education at Loughborough University. Colin is leading Challenge 5 within CEML, addressing the translation of research into practice.

Camilla Gilmore

Camilla Gilmore

Principal Investigator and Challenge Lead, Professor in Mathematical Cognition

Camilla is a Professor of Mathematical Cognition in the Department of Mathematics Education. Camilla is principal investigator of CEML and is lead for Challenge 1 focusing on early development of mathematics skills.

Silke Göbel

Silke Göbel

Challenge Lead, Reader – Psychology

Silke is a Reader at the Department of Psychology at the University of York (UK). There she runs the Numerical Cognition Lab.

At CEML Silke leads Challenge 2 and contributes to Challenge 1.

Matthew Inglis

Matthew Inglis

Capacity and Career Development Lead, Professor of Mathematical Cognition

Matthew is Professor of Mathematical Cognition in the Department of Mathematics Education at Loughborough University. Matthew leads on CEML’s capacity building work, and contributes to Challenges 2 and 5.

Tim-Jay

Tim Jay

Challenge Lead, Professor of Psychology of Education

Tim is Faculty APVC for Research and Knowledge Exchange in Social Science,  and Professor of Psychology of Education, at University of Nottingham. Tim leads work on Challenge 3 in CEML, which explores the ways in which children learn mathematics through interactions with others both in the classroom and at home.

Korbinian-moeller

Korbinian Moeller

Challenge Lead, Professor of Mathematical Cognition

Korbinian is a Professor of Mathematical Cognition in the Department of Mathematics Education. Korbinian is heading Challenge 4 on the design of effective educational resources based on a better understanding of mathematical learning processes.

Co-Investigators

Julia-Bahnmuller

Julia Bahnmüller

Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University

Julia is a lecturer in Mathematical Cognition in the Centre for Mathematical Cognition at Loughborough University. Within CEML, Julia contributes to the identification of causal mechanisms that drive mathematics learning during primary school and how these can be used to inform the design of effective educational resources.

Krzysztof-Cipora

Krzysztof Cipora

Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University

Krzysztof joined the Centre for Mathematical Cogntion as a lecturer in April 2020. Krzysztof’s responsibility within CEML is methodological support, especially quantitative research methods, with a particular focus on looking into individual prevalence of observed effects. He is also involved in training and capacity building activities, as well as data management.

Ann Dowker

College Lecturer in Psychology, University of Oxford

Ann Dowker is a University Research Lecturer at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. 

Paul Howard-Jones

Paul Howard-Jones

Professor of Neuroscience and Education, University of Bristol

Paul helps to turn the insights from CEML into resources and communications that support teachers’ efforts to foster young children’s mathematics. In particular, he attempts to understand how teachers already think about children’s learning and development in this area, and how scientific understanding can feed into that thinking and enhance their practice.

Hugo Lortie-Forgues

Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University

Hugo is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Mathematical Cognition at Loughborough University.

Andrew Manches

Senior Lecturer (cf. Associate Professor), University of Edinburgh

Dr Andrew Manches is a Senior Lecturer (cf. Associate Professor) at the University of Edinburgh, where he leads the Children and Technology group as co-director of the Digital Education Research Centre. Andrew draws upon his career experience in early years teaching and industry to support the design, development and promotion of resources from CEML. He also contributes his theoretical knowledge of the role of embodiment in early numerical learning and the potential for emerging technologies.

Kinga Morsanyi

Kinga Morsanyi

Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University

Kinga is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition in the Department of Mathematics Education. Kinga is interested in the development of mathematical thinking and mathematics-related feelings and attitudes in both typical development and in special populations (including children with dyscalculia and autism). 

Gaia Scerif

Gaia Scerif

Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford

Gaia has been based in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford since October 2006, where she is a Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research focuses on the development of attentional control and executive functions from early childhood into primary school, from their neural correlates to their outcomes on emerging cognitive abilities such as emerging mathematics learning. Gaia believes that this is an important focus because attention influences how we learn and behave in everyday situations, and it is particularly relevant in the classroom.

Francesco Sella

Francesco Sella

Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics Education, Loughborough University

Francesco is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics Education, and his research focuses on understanding and improving early numeracy. Within the CEML, Francesco contributes to creating novel methodologies to assess the development of early numerical skills (challenge 1) and supports the development and evaluation of educational resources to improve mathematical learning (challenge 4).

Sam Sims

Lecturer, University College London

Sam Sims is a Lecturer in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) at UCL. His research focuses on teachers, teaching, and teacher professional development. Sam teaches evaluation methods at UCL and has also published research on this topic. As part of CEML, Sam helps to design and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of training for early maths educators. You can find him on Twitter @DrSamSims.

Victoria Simms

Victoria Simms

Professor in Psychology, Ulster University

Victoria is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at Ulster University. In CEML Victoria contributes to research on creating measures suitable to track development in the early years (Challenge 1) and understanding the home environment and it’s influences (Challenge 3). Victoria is also a member of CEML’s capacity building and career development committee.

Elizabeth Stokoe

Elizabeth Stokoe

Professor, The London School of Economics and Political Science

Elizabeth Stokoe works in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at London School of Economics. She is also an Honorary Professor at Loughborough University, UK and Professor II at the University of Southeastern Norway. Liz will work particularly with Dr Natalie Flint and Prof Tim Jay on Challenge 3, analysing the social interactions between children, teachers, and parents about mathematics – both formally and tacitly – to help us better understand the contexts in which mathematical knowledge and skills evolve.

Iro Xenidou-Dervou

Iro Xenidou-Dervou

Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Department of Mathematics Education, Loughborough University

Within the CEML, Iro helps to develop novel methods for the sensitive assessment of numerical skills in the early years and examine how domain-general cognitive skills (e.g., executive functions) support early mathematical learning.

Post-Doctoral Research Associates

Natalie Flint

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Natalie is a Research Associate in CEML working on Challenge 3 which explores the ways in which children experience learning mathematics. Challenge 3 analyses the interactions children have with others both in the classroom and at home. Natalie’s research interests are in talk and social interaction: namely, Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) of interactions in a variety of contexts.

Venera Gashaj

Venera Gashaj

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

I earned my PhD in Developmental Psychology at the University of Bern. During my time as a doctoral student, I obtained a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Higher Education and a grant from the Swiss National Foundation, transitioning into postdoctoral research in Neuroscience at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. Before joining the team at the Centre for Early Mathematics Learning at Loughborough University, I was awarded the Teach@Tübingen fellowship and taught Embodied Cognition as well as Diagnostics at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany.

Ella James-Brabham

Ella James-Brabham

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Ella completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2022 which explored why socioeconomic attainment gaps in early maths achievement emerge. Following her PhD, Ella joined Loughborough University as a postdoc to design and test a number line game to support early numerical skills. Ella is interested in understanding how early maths skills develop, and developing interventions to support these skills and narrow inequalities. Ella will be working in CEML on Challenges 1 and 2, which aim to develop new methods to study the emergence of maths skills in the early years, and identify causal predictors of maths achievement.

Hanna Weiers

Hanna Weiers

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Hanna completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Master’s degree in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, before recently completing her PhD at Loughborough in the Centre for Mathematical Cognition. Hanna is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in CEML working on Challenges 1 and 2.

Franz Wortha

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Franz is a Research Associate in CEML with a technical focus. He will be contributing his expertise in statistical and machine learning modelling approaches across challenges. Franz is aiming to use state of the art analyses to investigate self-regulation and self-regulated learning processes, especially when learning with technologies.

Bethany Woollacott

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Bethany has been at Loughborough since 2017, completing a Masters in Social Science Research in 2018, and recently finishing her PhD focused on mathematical explanations and mathematics textbooks. Bethany will be working on Challenge 5, aiming to understand the best ways of communicating research to practitioners so that we can build a suite of effective professional development resources to support early years teachers.

Research Assistants

Sohnia Ghattaura

Research Assistant, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Sohnia completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at University of York in 2022, and master’s degree in Child Development at University College London in 2023. Sohnia is a Research Assistant in CEML working on challenge 1. Her main role involves collecting data in nursery settings to help understand how the foundations of mathematics learning emerge for children in the preschool years. 

Raneem Haddad

Research Assistant, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Raneem completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Linguistics at The University of Edinburgh in 2022, and master’s degree in Development, Disorders, and Clinical Practice at University of York in 2023. Raneem is a research assistant in CEML working on challenge 2, which aims to identify causal predictor of maths achievement. She will support the training of numerical predictors in a school based randomised controlled trial, as well as working on a meta-analysis to gain deeper insights into foundational numerical skills for maths attainment.

Katie Seabridge

Research Assistant, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Katie completed her bachelor’s degree in Education and Sociology at Keele University in 2020, before qualifying and working as a primary school teacher with an Early Years specialism. Katie completed her master’s degree in Education in 2023 before joining CEML as a Research Assistant on Challenge 3. Her main role is to collect and analyse qualitative data to explore how children’s development is influenced by their home and educational contexts.

Centre Management

Priti Meredith

Centre Manager, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Priti is responsible for the day to day running of CEML. As well as sitting on the Board of Directors, she oversees budgeting and financial management, monitoring and ESRC reporting, risk management, dialogue within and between institutions, recruitment, human resources, procurement and contracting. Prior to joining CEML, Priti spent the majority of her career working in research grant development and support.

Fiona Leedham

Partnership Development Manager, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Fiona’s role as Partnership Development Manager is to establish and develop relationships with educational settings and non-academic partnerships, and support communications between Research staff and external groups. In addition to collaborating with Impact Panels and Advisory Boards, Fiona assists Priti in communications within the Centre. Before joining the CEML team, Fiona’s experience is in Primary Education as a qualified teacher for many years, primarily working with children in Key Stage 1.

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Jessica Agyapong-Bendt

Research and Admin Assistant, Centre for Early Mathematics Learning, Loughborough University

Jessica is an undergraduate student studying Psychology in Loughborough University. She is currently on her placement year with CEML & CMC. Throughout her placement, Jessica is assisting with data collection and administration within the Centre and is gaining valuable experience working within a Research Centre.