Heather Whalley


Heather Clare Whalley is a Scottish scientist. She is a Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health neuroimaging at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, and is an affiliate member of the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Her main focus of research is on the mechanisms underlying the development of major psychiatric disorders using the latest genomic and neuroimaging approaches.

Education

Heather completed her MSc & PhD at the Division of Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, investigating neuroimaging data in adolescent individuals at familial risk for psychiatric conditions. She has since been awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, a John, Margaret, Alfred and Stewart Sim Research Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and an Edinburgh Scientist Academic Track Fellowship from the University of Edinburgh.

Career

She leads the imaging research group in psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh which has extensive links with several international consortia including the Psychiatric Genomics Consortia, IMAGEMEND and ENIGMA. The group focuses on how causal factors contribute to conditions through their impact on brain structure and function using large population-based data resources where available, and identifying how brain structure and function mediate effects on behaviour.

Selected publications