Exeter professor honoured by US President

In his final days as president, Joe Biden honoured an Exeter professor for groundbreaking research into how the brain processes numbers and develops numerical skills.

Dr Gavin Price, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Exeter, received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award, regarded as the highest honour the US government bestows on early-career scientists and engineers, is given to only 400 academics worldwide.

Reflecting on the recognition, Dr Price said: “I’m truly honoured to receive this prestigious award. It reflects, I hope, the important role that basic science research can play in contributing to individual and societal health and wellbeing. I’m sincerely grateful to the many mentors, trainees, and colleagues who have been instrumental to my research and to my professional and personal development.”

Dr Price’s research spans two decades and uses tools like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how the brain recognises and processes numerical and symbolic information. His work has helped shed light on how we understand numbers, assign value to symbols, and how these processes vary in individuals with mathematical learning difficulties.

Dr Price began his academic journey with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of York in 2003. He went on to complete his PhD at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland in 2008, focusing on the brain’s numerical comprehension processes. After a tenure at Vanderbilt University in the USA, Dr Price joined Exeter in 2022.

Sally Lamb, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean for the University of Exeter’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, praised Dr Price’s achievement, stating: “Congratulations to Gavin on receiving this prestigious international award. It is an incredible honour to be recognised by a US president, and testament to the global impact of Dr Price's research, which will make a meaningful difference to people's lives. It also underscores the value of cutting-edge techniques to foster innovative, world-leading research.”

Dr Price’s work continues to contribute to a deeper understanding of the brain, with implications for education, health, and the treatment of learning difficulties.