Meet the SINEA Team
Professor Niall M Broomfield, SINEA Director
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Deputy Head of the Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia (UEA)Professor Niall Broomfield has a vast amount of experience in Clinical Psychology. Having obtained his Practitioner Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Professor Broomfield completed a Research Fellowship in a CBT Sleep Clinic trial at the University of Glasgow. Between 2008-2018, Professor Broomfield undertook the role of Consultant Lead for the largest NHS stroke Clinical Psychology service with the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Now a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East Anglia, Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Therapies (CPPT) at UEA and formerly Deputy Dean of Norwich Medical School, Professor Broomfield is interested in investigating how strokes affect peoples’ mood and cognition and the role of behavioural sleep medicine including cognitive behavioural therapeutics in the treatment of insomnia disorder.
Websites to discover more about Professor Niall Broomfield and his work:
https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/niall-broomfield
Dr Alpar Lazar, SINEA Research Director
Associate Professor in Dementia and Complexity in Later Life at the University of East Anglia in the School of Health SciencesPrior to joining the UEA in 2016, Dr Alpar Lazar completed his PhD at Semmelweis University in Budapest where he explored the relationship between sleep physiology and Asperger’s syndrome. Dr Lazar later joined the Surrey Sleep Research Centre to study the effect of circadian rhythmicity and sleep history on human brain activity. Thereafter he moved to the University of Cambridge to investigate how sleep disturbances could be an early sign of Huntingdon’s disease. He is the head of the Sleep and Brain Research Unit at UEA which allows for innovative research that investigates the interrelationship between brain health and sleep. In 2019, Dr Lazar was awarded the Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science to investigate how genetic risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s may impact sleep.
Websites to discover more about Dr Alpar Lazar and his work:
https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/alpar-lazar
https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/experts/alpar.lazar
https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/sleep-and-brain-research-unit
Dr Joanne Bower, SINEA Public Engagement Director
Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia (UEA)Before joining the UEA in 2020 as a Lecturer in Psychology, Dr Jo Bower conducted a postdoctoral fellowship with the University of Houston. This involved working with NASA to explore risk and resilience factors relating to confined and extreme environments, which astronauts are trained to experience. Since then, Dr Bower has worked as a Lecturer in Psychology at De Montfort University, and now University of East Anglia, and tailored her interests towards investigating the relationships between sleep, emotion and emotion regulation. Dr Bower is also interested in how a lack of sleep can affect emotional processing and can lead to an increase in mental health difficulties in adolescents and adults.
Websites to discover more about Dr Joanne Bower and her work:
https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/jo-bower
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanne-Bower
Dr Sarah Reeve
Research Lecturer in Clinical Psychology in the Norwich Medical School at the University of East AngliaDr Sarah Reeve completed a DPhil in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford in 2017 before moving to University College London to complete her Clinical Psychology Doctorate (DClinPsy). Dr Reeve joined the University of East Anglia as a Research Lecturer in the Clinical Psychology Department in 2021 and specialises in investigating the relationships between sleep difficulties and mental health, including psychotic symptomatology such as delusions and hallucinations. Dr Reeve also works as a Clinical Psychologist in an NHS Early Intervention in Psychosis service.
Websites to discover more about Dr Sarah Reeve and her work:
Dr Teodora Gliga
Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of East Anglia (UEA)Dr Teodora Gliga completed her PhD in Cognitive Sciences in Paris in 2013 before becoming an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of East Anglia. She also undertook the role of Programme Leader at Birkbeck College in 2006 for the largest European longitudinal study of infants at hereditary risk of developmental disorders. Dr Gliga has previously investigated the development of infants and how they communicate with adults and is currently working on a project with Dr Alpar Lazar which investigates how sensory issues in Autism can disrupt sleep.
Websites to discover more about Dr Teodora Gliga and her work:
Dr Marcus Harrington
Research Associate, University of YorkDr. Marcus Harrington’s research interests are broadly related to sleep, memory, and emotion, with a particular focus on improving our understanding of how sleep and cognition interact in the development of psychiatric disorders. During his PhD at the University of Lincoln, Dr. Harrington studied the role of REM sleep in emotional memory consolidation and vulnerability to major depressive disorder. Currently a Research Associate at the University of York, Dr. Harrington examines the impact of sleep deprivation on thought control and emotion regulation. He will be joining the University of East Anglia in January 2023 as a Lecturer in Psychology, where he will continue research primarily concerned with investigating the benefits of forgetting for our cognitive and emotional well-being.
Websites to discover more about Dr Marcus Harrington and his work:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W64OBTwAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr Rebecca Rollinson
Principal Clinical Psychologist, NSFT, and Lead of Better Sleep ProgrammeDr Rebecca Rollinson initially worked at UEA as a Research Clinical Psychologist when she first qualified back in 2001. Since then, she has worked clinically across a range of settings in Norfolk and Suffolk, more recently in youth mental health services. This work has driven an interest in the role of sleep in youth mental health and led to the development of a CBT-informed intervention, designed to be delivered by non-expert therapists. Rebecca is actively working to improve young people's access to help with sleep difficulties with support from Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board and, UEA Health and Social Care Research Partners. She is also keen to support trainee clinical psychologists interested in researching sleep and youth mental health during their training.
Dr Zanna Voysey
PhD Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Brain Repair Centre and East of England Neurology Specialist RegistrarAfter completing medical training and neuroscience research in Oxford and London, Dr Zanna Voysey is conducting a PhD which investigates sleep abnormalities in Huntington’s disease and the degree to which they contribute to symptoms and disease progression. She is conducting her PhD funded by a Fellowship from the Association of British Neurologists, supervised byProfessor Roger Barker at Cambridge University and another member of SINEA, Dr Alpar Lazar, at the University of East Anglia.
Websites to discover more about Dr Zanna Voysey and her work:
https://www.thebarkerwilliamsgraylab.co.uk/blog/meet-the-team-zanna-voysey/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w3ywQ4c-WY
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8116411/
Dr Hong-Viet Ngo-Dehning (Hongi)
Lecturer, University of EssexDr. Hong-Viet Victor Ngo-Dehning (or just Hongi) completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Universities of Lübeck and Tübingen in Germany. Afterwards Hongi gathered research experience as a Postdoc at various institutions such as the University of Birmingham (UK) and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (NL) and University of Lübeck. Since 2023, he is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex.
His research disentangles the causal role of brain rhythms hallmarking sleep on memory consolidation and other cognitive functions. To unravel these mechanisms, Hongi utilizes different non-invasive brain stimulation techniques and not only hopes to advance our fundamental understanding but provide essential groundwork for translational applications ameliorating the function of sleep.
Anna De Laet
PhD Student in the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia (UEA)Anna De Laet is currently completing her PhD at the University of East Anglia wherein she is investigating how infants with and without a familial risk of Autism experience sensory processing whilst sleeping. Anna is interested in examining how the hypersensitivities experienced by infants with Autism can delay their sleep as these sensitivities make them more aware of the external factors around them.
Websites to discover more about Anna De Laet and her work:
Thomas Hicks: In 2023, Thomas completed an eight-month internship with Dr. Jo Bower as an administrator for the SINEA network. Thomas graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2023.
Indira Randhawa-Hiscock: In 2023, Indira completed an eight-month internship with Dr. Jo Bower as an administrator for the SINEA network. Indira graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2023 and earned an MSc in Neuropsychology from the University of Bristol in 2024.
Evie Brandish: In summer 2022, Evie completed an internship with Dr. Jo Bower as an administrator for the SINEA network. Before this, she volunteered as a research assistant for Dr. Bower, analyzing interview data on people's attitudes toward sleep. Evie graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2023.
Robyn Bradley: In 2022, Robyn volunteered with Dr. Jo Bower to help analyze qualitative research data on people's attitudes toward sleep. Robyn graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2022.
Chloe Rowland: In 2021, Chloe completed an internship with Dr. Jo Bower, conducting interviews for a qualitative study on people's attitudes toward sleep. Chloe graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2022.
Emily Tregaskis-Daniels: In 2021, Emily completed an internship with Dr. Jo Bower, conducting interviews for a qualitative study on people's attitudes toward sleep. Emily graduated with a BSc in Psychology from UEA in summer 2022.