Valerie Voon

Valerie is a Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation at the University of Cambridge and a Distinguished Professor at Fudan University, Shanghai.

Her research explores why we repeat harmful behaviours or make impulsive, risky decisions—processes central to everyday life and often disrupted in psychiatric disorders. Her group studies the mechanisms of self-control, compulsivity, emotion, and incentives, with a focus on addiction and compulsive disorders. The lab aims to identify modifiable physiological biomarkers to guide and optimise invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation therapies. Their work is highly translational, developing targeted, adaptive, and real-time therapeutic approaches. Valerie also leads a UK-wide Medical Research Council study on deep brain stimulation for addiction, using imaging, physiology, pharmacological challenges, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modelling.