Ingrid Johnsrude

Biography

Ingrid Johnsrude is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University, where she also holds the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience.In 1989, she graduated from Queen’s with a B.Sc in Psychology. Thereafter, she received an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from McGill University, where her thesis advisor was Brenda Milner, one of the founders of the field of cognitive neuroscience. Following post-doctoral work and academic positions in London and Cambridge UK, she came back to Queen’s as a faculty member in 2004. Dr Johnsrude is also a guest professor at Link’ping University in Sweden. Dr. Johnsrude and her trainees use behavioural and brain imaging methods to study how people understand speech in noisy environments. They are especially interested in how middle aged and older people understand speech, since such individuals are more likely to report difficulty understanding others when there are multiple sounds competing for attention – the so called “cocktail-party problem”. In 2009, Dr Johnsrude was one of six researchers to win the E.W.R Steacie Fellowship, awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. These awards recognize outstanding and highly promising university faculty who are earning a strong international reputation for original research.