- Fellow type
- UK Fellow
- Year elected
- 2015
- Sections
- Psychology
Professor Kia Nobre FBA is a world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist. Her research group is particularly well known for their innovative and multi-methodological studies of 'attention' – on how the brain proactively and dynamically focuses on relevant information in memory and in the external environment to optimise perception, choice, action, and learning.
Kia grew up in Rio de Janeiro. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Williams College, gained her doctorate at Yale University, and completed postdoctoral training at Yale and Harvard. She moved to Oxford in 1994 as Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology and Junior Research Fellow at New College. She remained at Oxford until 2023, initially as a Tutorial Fellow and Lecturer/Reader/Titular Professor in Experimental psychology (1996-2014) and later as Chair in Translational Cognitive Neuroscience in Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology. She moved to Yale University in 2023, where she is Wu Tsai Professor in the Psychology Department and Director of the Center for Neurocognition and Behavior at the Wu Tsai Institute.
Kia’s research and services to the scientific community are recognised by many leadership roles and prestigious awards. She is a member of the British Academy, Academia Europaea, and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. She received the MRC Suffrage Science Award (2018), Broadbent Prize from the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (2019), Mentor Award from the Association for Psychological Sciences (2022), and de Carvalho Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science (2022).
Current post
Department of Psychology, Yale University Wu Tsai Professor of Psychology
Center for Neurocognition and Behavior, Wu Tsai Institute Director
Oxford Health Foundation Trust Non-Executive Director
Department of Experimental Psychology and Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford Statutory Chair in Translational Cognitive Neuroscience
St Cathrine's College, Oxford Professorial Fellow
Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), University of Oxford Director
Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Northwestern University Medical School Adjunct Professor
Past appointments
Psychology Department, University of Bologna Visiting Professor
2022 - 2022
The SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Fellow
2018 - 2018
Experimental Psychology Department, University of Oxford Head of the Department
2016 - 2021
Oxford Neuroscience Committee Chair
2016 - 2021
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience
2006 - 2014
University of Rome, La Sapienza Visiting Professor
2004 - 2006
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford Reader
2004 - 2006
Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Northwestern University Medical School Adjunct Associate Professor
2001 - 2006
New College, Oxford Tutorial Fellow in Psychology
1996 - 2014
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford Lecturer
1996 - 2002
Institute of Neurology, University College London Honorary Lecturer
1995 - 2014
Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Northwestern University Medical School Visiting Scholar
1994 - 2001
University of Oxford McDonnell-Pew Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience
1994 - 1996
New College, Oxford Astor and Todd Bird Junior Research Fellow
1994 - 1996
Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Hospital Instructor
1993 - 1994
Yale University Medical School, Division of Neurosurgery Postdoctoral Associate
1992 - 1993
Publications
Frontoparietal and Cingulo-opercular Networks Play Dissociable Roles in Control of Working Memory
Kia Nobre - Published in 2015 by Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
27(10):2019-34
Temporal expectation enhances contrast sensitivity by phase entrainment of low-frequency oscillations in visual cortex
Kia Nobre - Published in 2013 by Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
33(9):4002-10
Long-term memory prepares neural activity for perception
Kia Nobre - Published in 2012 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
109(6):E360-7
Orienting attention to locations in internal representations
Kia Nobre - Published in 2003 by Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
15(8):1176-94
Where and when to pay attention: the neural systems for directing attention to spatial locations and to time intervals
Kia Nobre - Published in 1998 by The Journal of Neuroscience
18(18):7426-35
Word recognition in the human inferior temporal lobe
Kia Nobre - Published in 1994 by Nature
372(6503):260-3
