Dr Ieva Andrulytė, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrated Biology, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 British Neuroscience Association's Postgraduate Award in recognition of her ground-breaking thesis exploring hemispheric language dominance and brain connectivity.
By analysing complex neuroimaging datasets from MRI and state-of-the-art computational tools, Ieva investigated differences in how the left and right hemispheres influence brain networks and cognitive function. Her work addresses long-standing gaps in the field and provides insights that will inform both future theories of brain function and clinical practice, including neurosurgery for epilepsy.
Alongside her research, Ieva is a strong advocate for bringing neuroscience to the non-scientific audience, having taken part in public engagement activities such as the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
Ieva was awarded her PhD in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Liverpool last year, graduating on 9 December 2025 - the same day as the BNA Festive Symposium in Canary Wharf, London. As a result, she was unable to collect her award in person and instead shared a recorded acceptance message with delegates, thanking her supervisors and collaborators for their support.
Reflecting on the award, Ieva said: "This award feels like a milestone. It marks the end of four and a half years of really hard work, and the beginning of me stepping into myself as an independent neuroscientist. It's a reminder that what I've been doing actually matters, and that's incredibly meaningful to me."