Kate Nation

Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford

Kate Nation is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Her research is concerned with with language processing, especially reading development. She is interested in how children learn to read words and comprehend text, and more generally, the relationship between spoken language and written language. Her research spans both typical and atypical development. A key aim at present is to investigate the mechanisms involved in the transition from novice to expert. She also studies language processing in adults, addressing the issue of how skilled behaviour emerges via language learning experience. Kate has contributed to building links between psychological research and educational policy and practice. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and her research has been recognised by awards from the British Psychological Society and the Experimental Psychology Society. In 2020 she received the Celebrating Impact Prize from the Economic and Social Research Council in recognition of achieving and enabling outstanding societal impact from fundamental research.

About Dorothy:

"So many memories I don’t know where to start! Dorothy won’t remember, but we first met when I was a second-year undergraduate. She’d come to York to give a talk and my tutor Euan Macphail arranged for me to chat with her, knowing I was interested in language research. I could barely speak. Dorothy casually mentioned that she'd send me a review she was working on and a few days later, a package arrived by post, complete with a full manuscript draft. I’d never received such a thing before and it felt amazing. Little did I know then that a few years later I’d have the good fortunate and utter privilege of Dorothy being my official mentor, and just a few office doors away at that. I’ve learned so much from her over the years, and from all the amazing people who have worked with her. As mentorship grew into friendship, Dorothy has been a constant source of inspiration, good sense and mischievous fun. It’s hard to imagine the department without her, but I know ‘retirement’ will bring many new Bishop initiatives that continue to make us think and make us smile".