Camilla Nord

Dr. Camilla Nord is a neuroscientist and director of the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge. She holds dual positions as Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry and MRC Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Nord's lab develops approaches to mental health treatment, including pharmacological, psychological, and neurostimulation interventions, with expertise in brain-body and metabolic neuroscience. She studied physiology, psychology, and philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford, completed her doctorate in neuroscience at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, and conducted postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge.

Nord is the author of "The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health," a popular science book published by Penguin that was named a Book of the Year by Financial Times, Sunday Times, and Prospect Magazine, and became a Sunday Times bestseller. In the book, Nord explores mental health as a self-regulating process unique to each individual, examining how treatments such as therapy, medication, and brain stimulation work and why they sometimes do not.

Her research program is supported by major funding, including a £1.5 million Wellcome Career Development Award to investigate the neural mechanisms of bodily symptoms in neuropsychiatric conditions, and a £4.3 million Wellcome Mental Health Award, which she co-leads with Professor Sarah Garfinkel at University College London, to study interoceptive mechanisms of emotion in mental health treatment. Nord has received international recognition, including being named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and receiving the Young Scientist Award from the European Society of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, as well as Brainbox's Young Investigator Award.

Nord is also a Fellow and Director of Studies in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge. Her work in neuroscience and mental health has been featured in New Statesman, Financial Times, the Observer, and on Sky News and BBC Radio Four. Nord is known for translating complex neuroscience into accessible insights about how the brain constructs mental health, engaging both specialist and general audiences.