Professor Gina Rippon is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, Birmingham. She is a Past President of the British Assciation for Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research involves state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as dyslexia and autism. She also investigates the use of neuroscience techniques to explore social processes such as gender stereotyping and stereotype threat. She is an outspoken critic of ’neurotrash’, the populist (mis)use of neuroscience research to (mis)represent our understanding of the brain and, most particularly, to prop up outdated stereotypes. Her book on this topic ‘The Gendered Brain’, published by Bodley Head and Penguin Random House, came out in the UK in February 2019 and (as ‘Gender and Our Brains’) in the US in Sept. 2019. In 2020, it has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Korean and Chinese. It has been described as “Highly accessible…revolutionary to a glorious degree (Observer); “Well-crafted and thoroughly documented, this is a must-read for parents, teachers, and anyone of either sex who cares for children” (Kirkus starred review).

She is active in the field of the public communication of science and has spoken at many events in the UK and worldwide, most recently at Sydney Opera House and at the EU Commission. She is a member of Speakers4schools and regularly addresses secondary schools on brain-based topics, including sex differences. In 2015, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association for services to the communication of science.

She also writes for popular science outlets such as New Scientist, Scientific American and The Conversation, as well as contributing to programmes such as BBC’s Horizon, Start the Week, Woman’s Hour and The Infinite Monkey Cage. She recently served on the Fawcett Society’s Commission investigating gender stereotypes in the early years and has been a keynote speaker at preschool and primary education conferences, both in the UK and overseas, as well as the Department for Education. She speaks on the relevance of contemporary neuroscience to diversity and inclusivity initiatives especially in the field of mainstream science. She worked with the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme on promoting gender equality in research and innovation (GERI); https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/promoting-gender-equality-research-and-innovation). She has given keynote addresses to business organisations and to government policy groups, including the UK’s Cabinet Office, the Government’s Gender Equality Unit and the EU Commission.