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New staff spotlight: Dr David Plans

New staff spotlight: Dr David Plans

  • Date03 October 2022

David started as a lecturer in the department a few months ago. We caught up with him to find out what he has planned for the new term and how he enjoyed his time at Royal Holloway so far.

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What made you choose Psychology at Royal Holloway? A scientist I trust told me Royal Holloway's Psychology department was the friendliest he'd ever seen. It turns out he was right!

Can you tell us a little about the teaching you will carry out at RHUL? My area of specialism is burnout and stress, and how to design digital interventions to enhance wellbeing.

My teaching will focus on areas related to using smartphone applications to deliver digital therapeutics, and the design of digital biomarkers of mental disorder that use measures of body signal perception (interoception).

What is your favourite aspect of teaching? The aspect of teaching I enjoy most is having the opportunity to share with my students my passion for what psychology and technology can do for the world, and giving them a sense for what the startup world and industry at large are up to, when faced with massive rises in mental health diagnostics worldwide.

What do you do outside of work? I play classical piano and write contemporary fiction, and in both I look at how to move through stress and trauma in the body by exploring its voice in either sound or language.

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