Sunday 14 July 2013

Welcome to Our New Head of School!

Prof Simon Dennis
We like to extend a very warm welcome to our new Head of School, Prof Simon Dennis.

Simon was educated at the University of Queensland. He has worked at UQ, as well as the University of Colorado, the University of Adelaide, and the Ohio State University.

Simon’s main areas of research are in human memory and language processing. He focuses primarily on episodic recognition and serial recall and the processes behind the extraction of propositional information from text. He is also involved in a number of applied projects in the areas of defense, education, and information technology.

In a recent interview for the University’s Seahorse magazine, Simon commented on the School of Psychology's strengths:

“The School achieved outstanding results in the latest ERA [Excellence in Research for Australia] assessment – a score of five in the psychology section and in the cognitive science section, a score of four. No school in Australia scored a five for cognitive science and I would like to make Newcastle the first to do so.”

“Beyond research, I would like the School to continue providing a quality educational experience for our students and prepare for important changes in the delivery of instruction. We need to be leading, not following, these trends.”

Welcome Simon – we look forward to working with you!

We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Miles Bore for his work as the Head of the School of Psychology over the last 18 months. Miles has left the School in an extremely strong position, overseeing several new appointments, several successful teaching accreditation and quality reviews, and an ERA (2012) performance that places the School in the top 4 of the 41 assessed psychology departments in the country. Thank you Miles for all your hard work.