Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow
Rachael Jack is a Reader (Associate Prof) at the Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow. Her research has produced significant advances in understanding facial expression of emotion within and across cultures using a novel interdisciplinary approach that combines psychophysics, social psychology, dynamic 3D computer graphics, and mathematical psychology. Most notably, she has revealed cultural specificities in facial expressions of emotion; that four, not six, expressive patterns are common across cultures; and that facial expressions transmit information in a hierarchical structure over time. Together, Jack’s work has challenged the dominant view that six basic facial expressions of emotion are universal, which has led to a new theoretical framework of facial expression communication that she is now transferring to digital agents to synthesize culturally sensitive social avatars and robots. Jack’s work has featured in several high-profile scientific outlets (e.g., Annual Review of Psychology, Current Biology, Psychological Science, PNAS, TICS). She is currently funded by the European Research Council (ERC) to lead the research program Computing the Face Syntax of Social Face Signals, which will deliver a formal model of human social face signalling with transference to social robotics. Jack is recipient of the American Psychological Association (APA) New Investigator award, the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS) Innovation award, and the British Psychological Society (BPS) Spearman Medal. She is also Associate Editor at Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and committee member for the conferences of the Society for Affective Sciences (SAS), IEEE Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition, and the Vision Science Society (VSS).