About Jenny
scientist, writer and researcher
When I was young and people asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, my answer was always the same. A doctor! I vividly remember my high school teacher asking the class to write a story about our lives in the Year 2000. In my story, not only was I a doctor, but I had also penned a best-selling novel and was raising twin 13-year-old boys.
My 12 year old self hadn’t really thought through how I’d have the time to complete a medical degree, write and market a best-seller, and bring up two teenagers – all by the age of 31. I guess it’s possible, but that’s not how things worked out.
Life had other plans for me as health challenges got in the way of a career in medicine. Instead, I left university with degrees in science and maths. After a decade in R&D I went back to study, this time coming away with a piece of paper that finally gave me license to tick the DR box on forms (just don’t ask me to deliver a baby mid-flight, I’m not that kind of doctor, but you can have a chat to me about computational fluid dynamics any time)!
And as for the best-seller? I’m still working on that. Overall I’m a creative, who wants to make a positive difference whether through my research or my writing, but hopefully both.
Academic Research
I’m an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London. For the past eight years I’ve been working with Professor Sir John Hardy, who is a science rockstar in the world of neurodegenerative diseases, and Professor John Crawford, another rockstar but in the world of complex systems. Both are not only super smart but also genuinely kind human beings.
Our collaboration reads a bit like the start of one of those jokes: what do you get when a Scottish mathematician, a Kiwi physicist, and an English geneticist walk into a pub? The answer in our case is a strong interdisciplinary research team working to understand the multi-scales of biological and physical organisation in the human brain – and how it tips from a state of health into Alzheimer’s disease.
I’ll be blogging about our project in Letting Off STEAM, where I’ll share insights into the science behind our work. You can learn more about Alzheimer’s at my other website, Decoding Alzheimer’s. For those interested in diving deeper, my academic publications are available on ResearchGate.
Writing
With a strong research background that falls across multiple science disciplines, engineering, mathematics, and freelance journalism, I thrive on breaking down complex and technical concepts so they’re accessible to a wide audience.
For over seven years, I wrote a monthly science column exploring a wide range of topics including sustainability, the environment, and health. While I still contribute to magazines and industry journals, my research focus has shifted toward the ever-evolving fields of neuroscience and health.
I’m also working on two non-fiction books with the working titles: “Our Awesome Brain” and “Finding Myself Through Finding Dulcie”. I’ll be sharing updates about the research and writing process for both projects in Letting Off STEAM and through plenty of pretty pictures on Instagram.