Dr Fang Liu (PI)
Fang Liu is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading. She received her PhD in Linguistics and MS in Statistics from the University of Chicago. Her research aims to understand how the human brain processes pitch information for linguistic and musical purposes during production and perception. Her current areas of research include speech prosody in tone versus non-tonal languages, pitch processing in different populations (autism, amusia, dyslexia, musicianship), speech/music production and perception, and cognitive and neural bases of pitch processing.
Dr Tom Loucas (Co-I)
Tom Loucas is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist (HCPC registered) and an Associate Professor of Communication Disorders in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading. He has worked with children and adolescents with communication difficulties for more than 20 years, specialising in autism spectrum conditions. He is a Co-Director of the University of Reading Centre for Autism, working within the autism diagnostic clinic and more recently offering an early intervention service for preschool-aged autistic children. His research interests include the nature of the communication difficulties experienced by autistic individuals and their management and treatment.
Dr Tim Williams (Co-I)
Tim Williams is a semi-retired clinical psychologist who has known and worked with autistic individuals for more than 50 years. He also holds qualifications in cognitive behaviour therapy and has a research degree on teaching methods for autistic individuals. He has particular interests in how music affects people, and why people do the same things again and again like the stereotyped behaviours in autism and the obsessive compulsive disorder seen in typical development. In the field of autism research he has been involved in studies of therapy as well as more experimental studies into instance pitch perception in autism.
Dr Jacqueline Sin (Co-I)
Jacqueline Sin is a Professor of Mental Health Nursing & NIHR Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences at City, University of London. Her clinical and research interests focus on understanding the needs and experiences of individuals affected by mental health conditions, and those of their family members and close friends. She uses such understandings to develop, evaluate and implement psychosocial interventions that work – delivered via individual, group-based, and e-health medium – to enhance people’s mental health and wellbeing. Jacqueline is particularly passionate about involving patients, carers, and the public as key stakeholders in clinical research (PPI).
Ms Mirjana Jeremic
Mirjana Jeremic is a Speech and Language Therapist (HCPC registered) experienced with working with autistic children and their parents and carers. She has coached parents and carers to deliver language interventions to young autistic children with no or few words. She has also worked with older autistic children and has experience in implementing social skills training programmes within the home and school settings. She is passionate and motivated to help those with communication needs.
Ms Sara Fincham-Majumdar
Sara Fincham-Majumdar is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist (HCPC registered) and Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading. Sara has worked with autistic children and families since 1998. She qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2007 and has specialised in the field of autism since 2012. Sara is currently studying for her PhD, and her research explores social communication intervention for preschool autistic children.