Programme Leader, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge

Dr Kievit is Programme Leader track at Cambridge Neuroscience. He is also a Sir Henry Wellcome fellow on the MRC Programme Leader Track at the CBU and a Bye-Fellow at Fitzwilliam College.

His research focuses on using psychometric models to understand neurodevelopmental changes in executivefunctions. These cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, problem solving and goal management, develop rapidly during adolescence and often show steep decline in old age. However, the neurocognitive changes that underlie these important processes are poorly understood, and many key questions are unresolved: What represents optimal brain development? How do changes in brain structure and function interact across the lifespan? Can people recruit additional neural resources to maintain performance? What sets apart people who maintain cognitive abilities into old age? To understand these questions, we must study the dynamics of development: how does brain function and structure change across the lifespan, and how does this affect our higher cognitive abilities? His approach to these questions are by using psychometric techniques in large-sample, multimodal, longitudinal datasets.

Roger gained his BSc and PhD from the University of Amsterdam. He has also worked Research Fellow at the Kosslyn laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsychology at Harvard University.