Anna Temp (BSc Psychology)

Study at Buckingham

I studied at Buckingham from 2010-2012, obtaining a BSc Psychology First class and winning the Horlogerie Kandahar Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement. This enabled me to enroll at the University of Edinburgh, a Russell Group member and then ranked number 17 in the world. At Edinburgh, I completed my MSc Human Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Buckingham’s psychology training is heavily focused on the practical aspects of research. Because we conducted over a dozen research projects as part of our on-going coursework, I was fully prepared not just for my First-class undergraduate thesis at Buckingham, but also for my postgraduate thesis with Distinction at Edinburgh. I acquired competencies in academic writing, research design and statistical analysis at Buckingham that gave me confidence in my own research, which is rarely found at other universities.

My shining research skills qualified me for a PhD at Edinburgh, supervised by Dr Thomas Bak and Dr Billy Lee. My PhD involved a 12-month longitudinal data collection on Svalbard, just shy of the North Pole. One of my conference talks won the Springer Student Prize at the University of the Arctic Congress, 2016, and my PhD was recognized with the Moray Endowment Scholarship of ₤2000. I was even interviewed on BBC4 radio!

Present day

In 2024, I am a clinical neuropsychologist, practicing in a renowned acquired brain injury unit. In my everyday work, I help patients and their families cope with the often catastrophic consequences of traumatic brain injury and long covid. I also conduct medico-legal assessments of clients claiming against their occupational insurance following work-related accidents and illnesses.

Simultaneously, I research rare neurological diseases (think motor neuron disease) at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within the Helmholtz Association. With an annual budget around ₤3.5bn, the Helmholtz Association is listed as number 7 of the top 10 global research institutions by Nature Index.

I was one of the first researchers to translate the concept of cognitive reserve from Alzheimer‘s disease to ALS/MND. I‘ve also made it a career priority to promote the application of Bayesian probability in the context of clinical trials. Here, I‘ve collaborated with some of the big names in Bayesian applications for psychology, such as EJ Wagenmakers. I‘ve also written an editorial for Alzheimer‘s & Dementia, one of the top 10 neurology journals globally.