Alexandra Lautarescu

Alexandra is an MRC funded PhD student working to understand the relationship between maternal depression during pregnancy and early development of the fetal and neonatal brain, as part of the developing Connectome Project.

Alexandra joined King’s College London in 2016 as a Research Assistant on the “Individual Differences in EEG in young Adults Study”(IDEAS). Prior to her time at King’s College London, she obtained a BSc(Hons) in Psychology from the University of Exeter, followed by an MPhil in Medical Sciences (Psychiatry) at the University of Cambridge. During her MPhil, she conducted research on mitochondrial dysfunction as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease in older adults with Down syndrome.

Currently, she is involved in teaching on the BSc Psychology module, as well as working as a research assistant on the “Early Development in Tuberous Sclerosis” study, with Dr Charlotte Tye. She is a co-founder of the Postdocalypse Podcast and an active member of open research initiatives, including the RIOT Science Club (RIOTS) and the King’s Open Research Group Initiative (KORGI).

Research interests

• Neurodevelopment
• Neuroimaging
• Open research
• Mental health
• Early development

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistant on BSc(Hons) Psychology:

• Sept 2018- Sept 2019: Research Methods (teaching and marking)
• Sept 2019 – Jan 2020: Inspirational Research (marking)
• Jan 2020 – present: Addressing Problems (teaching and marking)
• 2016-2017: Inspirational Research (mobile EEG demonstrations)

Other:

• Lecture: MRI as a tool for understanding early development – for MSc Child and Adolescent Mental Health (February 2019)
• Lecture and workshop: How to get on a PhD programme – at IoPPN – (November 2018)
• Mobile EEG demonstration – for EEG Analysis Summer School – at SGDP Centre – (July 2017)

Public engagement

• Co-founder of Postdocalypse podcast
• Contributed to writing a primer for the UK Reproducibility Network
• Took part in the STEM for Britain poster competition in the House of Commons, where she presented her work on maternal stress and early brain development to Members of Parliament
• Wrote an article for “The Psychologist” 
• Took part in Skype a scientist, an initiative that matches scientists with classrooms around the world for Q&A sessions that cover scientific expertise and what it’s like to be a scientist
• A member of Royster Global Fellows, an initiative where KCL students work in partnership with students from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. As part of this, she participated in two conferences, one in 2018 in London (topic: The civic role of the university) and one in 2019 in Chapel Hill (topic: Borders). She co-authored a white paper, which was the result of the first conference.