Faraneh Vargha-Khadem (born 1949) is a British cognitive neuroscientist specializing in developmental amnesia among children. Faraneh was a part of the team that identified the

FOXP2 Forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ''FOXP2'' gene. FOXP2 is a member of the forkhead box family of transcription factors, proteins that regulate gene expression by binding to DNA. It is expressed ...

gene, the so-called 'speech gene', that may explain why humans talk and chimps do not.

Education

Vargha-Khadem was educated at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

and the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

Career and research

She served as head of the clinical neuropsychology service at

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospit ...

, and director of the centre for developmental cognitive neuroscience at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Faraneh was the awarded the

BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award The BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest UK professional award for clinical neuropsychologists. It was created by the British Psychological Society's Division of Neuropsychology (DoN) in 2010 and is awarded on an annual ba ...

in 2013.

References

Living people 1949 births British cognitive neuroscientists Academics of University College London National Health Service people {{UK-scientist-stub