Constanze Hesse (PI)

Prof Constanze Hesse obtained her PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in April 2008 at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen in Germany under the supervision of Prof Volker Franz (“The use of visual information when grasping objects”). Between March 2008 and March 2010, she was a post-doctoral research associate at the department of Experimental Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich where she worked with Prof Heiner Deubel. In Munich, she focused her research on the role of attention in grasping as part of the Cluster of Excellence: “Cognitive Technical Systems”. In March 2010 she obtained funding from the German Research Foundation for a 2-year post-doctoral research project investigating the role of the dorsal and ventral pathway in perception and action processing at Durham University (UK) together with Prof Thomas Schenk. In April 2012 she started her position as a Lecturer at Aberdeen University where she was promoted in 2017 to Senior Lecturer and in 2023 to Personal Chair.

See also: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/people/profiles/c.hesse

Martin Giesel (Post-Doc)

During his PhD, working with Karl Gegenfurter at the University of Giessen, Martin investigated chromatic discrimination and colour appearance of complex naturalistic stimuli using psychophysical experimentation and computational modelling. Supported by a DFG-funded post-doctoral scholarship, he investigated the visual perception of materials and material properties at SUNY College of Optometry working with Qasim Zaidi. In 2015, he moved to Scotland and joined Julie Harris’ lab at the University of St Andrews where he worked on a project investigating the perception of motion-in-depth and vergence eye movements. In 2018, he joined the GRasPER lab, where he currently investigates avenues of using motor behaviour (approach and avoidance behaviour) as a tool to investigate perceptual processes.

Zhong Jian Chee (Keith) (Post-Doc)

Dr Zhong Jian Chee (Keith) obtained his PhD at the University of Nottingham Malaysia in 2023. During his PhD, he examined the relationship between autistic traits, musical sophistication, and executive functions. He then joined the GRasPER lab, where he currently investigates how people act in the presence of unpleasant-to-touch objects and materials as well as how they interact with such objects and materials (i.e., how they grasp or explore them).

Daniela Ruseva (Research Assistant)

Daniela obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Aberdeen in 2022 and her MRes degree in 2023. In September 2022, she joined the lab as a Research Assistant on an ESRC-funded project investigating the cognitive and sensory basis for natural behaviour in Virtual Reality. She is also continuing to pursue her own research projects in which she investigates the effect of colour saturation on approach and attentional biases toward different types of food.