Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), McGill University, Canada

MSc in Psychology

BSc in Psychology (major) and Education (minor)

Develop understanding and strategies to strengthen adaptive memories in aging and in dementia and to weaken maladaptive memories in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Learning and remembering are fundamental functions that we experience everyday. Memory decline however occurs in cognitive aging and memory loss is a hallmark affecting life quality in dementia. Our research aims to understand how memory persists or declines. Specifically, we use experimental approaches to characterise the behavioural histories and brain mechanisms underlying memory acquisition, consolidation, destabilisation, and reconsolidation. We also investigate how these processes change in anxiety, in aging, and in dementia. Our goal is to use this knowledge to develop methods to effectively improve cognitive functions in aging and in diseases. 

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
MSc Integrative Neuroscience, Board of Teaching
Biomedical Sciences Teaching Organisation, Board of Studies

Lecturing and marking:
Neuroscience 3
General Neuroscience
Neural Circuits of Learning and Memory
Neurobiology of Cognition in Health and Disease
MSc Integrative Neuroscience
Wellcome Trust 4yr PhD Translational Neuroscience

Supervision: PhD, MSc, Hons research projects

Szu-Han Wang received a BSc, a MSc and PhD in Psychology. Her PhD research with Prof Karim Nader on memory reconsolidation can be seen in Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience and other journals. Her postdoc work on systems consolidation with Prof Paul Frankland in the Hospital of Sick Children, Toronto, can be seen in Nature Neuroscience. Further postdoc work on memory consolidation with Prof Richard Morris in the University of Edinburgh can be seen in PNAS, Annual Review of Psychology and other journals. She, as a lead applicant, was subsequently awarded Caledonian Research fellowship (Royal Society of Edinburgh) and BBSRC new investigator grant. Her funded research on memory persistence and aging can be seen in Neurobiology of Aging, Neuropharmacology, and Current Biology.Collaborative work on neurodegenerative disease, neurogenesis, and neuropathic pain can be seen in Neuron andNature Medicine. She is an Alzheimer’s Research UK Senior Research Fellow.