Generous donation funds DPhil scholarship in Experimental Psychology

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor Wolfson is offering a fully-funded DPhil scholarship in Experimental Psychology, starting in October 2025. The scholarship will make possible important research and augment Wolfson’s strength in this field.

Wolfson has long had expertise in Experimental Psychology: the Watts Professorship of Experimental Psychology, currently held by Matthew Rushworth, FRS, comes with Governing Body Fellowship of the College. Professor Rushworth is an expert in cognitive processes and how the brain makes decisions, and a member of Wolfson’s Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Cluster. His research group focuses on understanding how decision-making mechanisms work in the healthy brain, and how some of these processes go awry when people suffer from psychological illnesses.

Research in the department is organized around five core themes — behavioural neuroscience, developmental psychology, perception and cognition, psychological and brain health, and social psychology. The DPhil in Experimental Psychology admits approximately 23 students per year and, as a graduate college and the collegiate home of the Watts Professorship, Wolfson is the ideal college for students on this course.

The new scholarship will complement the Rachel Conrad Scholarship in Clinical Depression, an endowed scholarship for doctoral research in Experimental Psychology or Psychiatry which was established by a major legacy to Wolfson in 2021.