Our people – CEML

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

Challenge leads

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

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

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

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

Challenge Lead, Professor of Psychology of Education

Tim is the Head of the Department of Mathematics Education and Professor of Psychology of Education at Loughborough University. 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

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 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.

Ouhao Chen

Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University

Ouhao is a Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition in the Department of Mathematics Education at Loughborough University. Ouhao contributes to CEML’s challenge 2 which involves working memory and challenge 4 designing educational resources.

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 would be 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

Professor of Neuroscience and Education, University of Bristol

Paul will be 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.