Laboratory for Innovation in AutismOur team

Current Team

Professor Jonathan Delafield-Butt, Director

Jonathan Delafield-Butt is a Professor in Child Development and Director of the cross-disciplinary Laboratory for Innovation in Autism at the University of Strathclyde. His work examines the origins of conscious experience and the embodied and emotional foundations of psychological development, with attention to the subtle but significant motor disruption evident in autism spectrum disorder. He took his Ph.D. in Developmental Neurobiology at the University of Edinburgh Medical School before extending to Developmental Psychology with application of intersubjectivity theory in postdoctoral work at the Universities of Edinburgh and Copenhagen. He held scholarships at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Edinburgh for science-philosophy bridgework. Delafield-Butt trained pre-clinically in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Scottish Institute for Human Relations. He is a member of the World Association for Infant Mental Health and the International Society for Autism Research.

Prof Phil Rowe, Co-Director

Philip Rowe is Professor and Research Director of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. His research interests include the application of science and engineering methods to patient treatment and also their use to quantify and analyse the clinical effects of rehabilitation services. He particularly interested in the motor aetiology in autism and disturbance of motor control as a possible target for neurorehabilitation. Professor Rowe is Research Director for the highly successful department of Biomedical Engineering which was ranked 1st in Scotland and 4th in the UK in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework with 90% of our research rated world class (4*) or internationally leading (3*).

Prof Ivan Andonovic, Co-Director

Ivan Andonovic is a Professor of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde with research interests in broadband networking, wireless sensor systems and the Internet-of-Things. He is a Fellow of the IET and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He was co-founder, Director, and Chief Technology Officer of Silent Herdsman, a start-up that developed a decision support system for dairy farming based on motion sensing.

Dr Christos Tachtatzis, Principal Co-Investigator

Christos Tachtatzis is a Lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. In 2016 he was awarded a prestigious Chancellor’s Fellow award to conduct fundamental and industrial research in Sensors and Asset Management. His current activities focus on Internet of Things and Data Analytics technologies. My research projects span a wide range of applications and industrial sectors, including early diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is one of the co-ordinators for the “System for Data-Based Decisions” sub-theme of the Measurement Science and Enabling Technologies (MSET) Strategic Theme.

Dr Szu-Ching Lu, Hawthorne Fellow in Autism Innovation

Dr Szu-Ching Lu was trained as an occupational therapist and she received her PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering. She is interested in human movement biomechanics and their applications in clinical research as well as a broader evolutionary context. Her current project is to investigate the movement of children with neurodevelopmental disorders via smart tablet gameplay and wearable devices.

Adam Mitchell, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Adam Mitchell has a BA in Neuroscience from the University of Glasgow and an M.Sc. with Distinction in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. He is currently working on his PhD at the University of Strathclyde, under the supervision of Dr Jonathan Delafield-Butt, to develop wearable sensors and serious games for smart devices to assist in early diagnosis of autism.

Yu Wei Chua, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Yu Wei Chua completed her BA in Natural Sciences (Physiology and Psychology) at the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences in University College London. Her PhD focuses on assessing motor control in children with autism using wearable sensors and motion capture, and linking this to psychological processes such as learning and cognition. She is interested in the aetiology of mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, especially to understand how early difficulties with motor planning and control might cascade into the patterns of social interaction and communication seen in autism.

Tim McGowan, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Tim McGowan graduated from the University of Oxford in 2009 with a BA in History. Following his undergraduate degree, Tim worked as a management consultant in the City of London (specialising in large scale business transformation and information security) before completing an MSc in Psychology at the University of Nottingham. He is also a qualified teacher and Teach First ambassador. Currently, Tim is researching the relationship between movement and autism and is working to develop and deploy lightweight and wearable sensors for the ecological characterisation of the autism motor signature in very young children and infants.

Penelope (Pum) Dunbar, Artist and Researcher

P u m is an artist and researcher whose orientation leans toward an auto-ethnographic, philosophical and ethological inquiry into the nature of being human from the perspective of autism. Her research is existential and phenomenological, combining personal experience with scientific scholarship and reflection.

Evelyn Tonner, Laboratory Administrator

Evelyn Tonner has been with the Univeristy since June 2016, when she returned from a year of travelling. During her travels she visited India, South East Asia and Australia, while in Australia she volunteered for the local riding for the disabled club and the Australian Red Cross. Evelyn has a wealth of administration experience. She started her admin career as an office Junior in 2003 from there she worked in a wide range of different offices from private companies to local and national government agencies, building on her knowledge and skills throughout.

She completed her HNC in Business Administration and IT in 2008, and completed 3 business management modules through Open University between 2011-2012. She completed an SVQ in Business Administration at SCQF level 8 in February 2022.

Rachel Shannon - Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Rachel Shannon completed her MA (Hons) in Linguistics at The University of Edinburgh in 2021 and has experience working in mainstream and additional needs education. Her PhD centres around language development in autistic children, with a focus on the role of parent-child interactions. Rachel’s aim is to explore questions around this topic with input from several disciplines, using both theoretical and technological innovations. Her supervision team of Professor Jonathan Delafield-Butt (Child Development) and Dr Susan McCool (Speech and Language Therapy) reflects this, and her hope to produce work that is applicable in education, in clinical practice, and in the home.

Ismail Okatan - Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Ismail Okatan graduated from Eskişehir Osmangazi University Special Education Teaching Undergraduate Program. He completed his master's degree at Gazi University in the Department of Special Education. Ismail's master's thesis aimed at improving social skills and social acceptance of students with autism in the inclusive classroom. He is currently working toward a PhD in the School of Education. Ismail's doctoral work takes an embodied approach to understand the importance of classroom-based physical activities for students with autism, and will measure their effect. Ismail’s work brings together physical activity, embodiment, autism, movement and technology for improved movement-based interventions in the classroom.

Daniel Mayol Jimenez - Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Daniel Mayol Jimenez completed his BSc in Psychology at the Universitat de Barcelona and his MSc in Developmental Psychology at the University of Dundee. He is undertaking his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Delafield-Butt and Dr. Essex, investigating the nature and dynamics of restricted and special interests of students with autism in educational settings. This work aims to identify the most successful strategies to incorporate students’ interests into curriculum activities to enhance academic performance and well-being.

Alumni

Greta Todorova, Research Assistant

Greta Todorova has an M.Sc. with Distinction in Research Methods of Psychological Sciences from the University of Glasgow. She is currently finishing her PhD in Psychology at the University of Glasgow focusing on autism and predictive coding. She is a part-time Research Assistant, working on the set up of a 7T MRI pilot study funded by SINAPSE, which is looking to resolve the differences in brainstem nuclei between neurotypical and autistic individuals.

Louise McKeever, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Louise McKeever completed her PhD at the University of Strathclyde. Her research focused on the relationship between speech, language, and fine motor control difficulties in children with autism. She used ultrasound tongue imaging to investigate speech motor control in children with ASD. Her interests included ASD conditions, ultrasound tongue imaging, speehc motor control, and language.

Erin Lux, Data Manager

Erin Lux has a BA in English Literature and History and an MA in History from the University of Ottawa, and is currently a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Strathclyde. Her research interests include history and policy in child mental health, child development, and juvenile justice. She is particularly interested in people with mental illness and developmental disorders in the justice system and the effect of late or missed diagnosis on educational and social outcomes.

Dr Lindsay Millar, Trial Manager

Lindsay Millar has a BSc in Anatomy from the University of Glasgow and an MSc and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. She has an interest in human movement, particularly human kinematics and kinetics. Her PhD work focused on providing visual feedback during rehabilitation using 3D motion analysis technology. Her work continued to integrate technology and healthcare in order to provide the best possible treatment, care and rehabilitation to people with movement abnormalities.

Elaine Hutton, Research Assistant

Elaine Hutton holds a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Developmental Psychology from the University of Dundee, in addition to a background in nursing and education. She is interested in how neurodevelopmental disorders impact future life outcomes, especially in children and adults on the autistic spectrum.

image of a woman with long hair in a yellow jumper

Rachel Miller, Project Administrator

Rachel Miller previously worked at the University of Sussex in a number of roles in Research and Enterprise Services. Her academic background is in Psychology surrounding aspects of health, disability and chronic illness, and has worked with young people with autism and learning disabilities. Since leaving the lab, she is working toward an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Stirling.

Maria Ferrara, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Maria Ferrara was a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde. She investigated motor difficulties in children with autism during early childhood. In particular, she used iPad games to detect specific motor profile that may lead to novel, fun, technological diagnostic tools. She also investigated potential benefit of intensive motor training (Waldon Approach) during early childhood on social abilities.

Omar Alawajee, Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Omar Alawajee completed his BA in Special Education and his MSc in Autism. He completed his PhD studying the benefits of using video games in teaching social skills for children with autism spectrum disorder and students with hearing loss at the University of Strathclyde in 2019. He is presently a lecturer at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia.