Dr Katerina Johnson is a biologist from the University of Oxford (alma mater Pembroke College). Her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Bioscience combined her background in biology and evolution with the disciplines of psychology and psychiatry. Her DPhil focused on the nascent field of the microbiome–gut–brain connection and she has since continued as a Research Associate at this exciting frontier of neuroscience.
Her main interest is understanding the ways in which the gut can affect how we think, feel and behave i.e. the science of that ‘gut feeling’.
Her research spanning the microbiome, human neuroscience and animal behaviour has received worldwide attention. Katerina has been featured on TV (e.g. Sky News with Kay Burley, ITV feature, CTV, BBC South), radio (e.g. BBC Radio 4 PM programme, Radio 4 Inside Science, BBC World Service) and podcasts (e.g. Vox, Naked Scientists, Fun Kids). She is regularly approached by journalists for her expertise and her research has been covered in all the main national and various international newspapers, as well as online magazines (e.g. Bloomberg, Time, Forbes).
Katerina is fascinated by the complexity and ingenuity of life and is passionate about communicating science to the public, particularly scientific findings that have the potential to widely affect our lives or with implications for understanding the nature of who we are. She enjoys talking to live audiences and her TEDx talk on the future of gut microbiome research has over 60K views. She has also worked on science documentaries for the BBC and National Geographic.
She has received various awards, both for her academic endeavours and public engagement, including a prestigious Gibbs Prize and the Oxford Bioscience Impact Award. Katerina is also involved in science policy, contributing to parliamentary roundtables on gut health and the government’s expert research panel and steering group on the gut–brain connection.
