Dr Louise Delicato
Member of Senate MA (Hons), PhD
Louise is an Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality) and Associate Professor in Psychology within the School of Social Sciences. She is an elected member of Senate and serves on Court as a Senate representative.
Biography
Louise completed an MA (Hons) in Psychology from the University of St. Andrews (1998) and a PhD in Visual Perception from the University of Nottingham in 2002 and is a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society. Following her PhD Louise became a post-doctoral researcher at Columbia University, New York, where she investigated depth perception (2002 - 2004). During her time at Columbia University, Louise became interested in understanding the neural mechanisms involved in processing visual information and returned to the UK as a post-doctoral researcher at Newcastle University (2004 - 2007); she used micro-iontophoresis to investigate the role of the cholinergic system in visual attention in primary visual cortex. Louise moved to the University of Sunderland in 2007 to become a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, was promoted to Associate Head of School of Psychology in 2015 and moved to Heriot-Watt University in 2018.
Most of Louise's current role is focused on educational leadership within Learning and Teaching and in 2018 she was awarded Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2025 Louise was appointed as a Tertiary Quality Enhancement Reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
Louise's current research interests are focused on understanding the contribution of our visual experience to the restorative potential of different environments and understanding emotion processing from faces.
Outside of work Louise loves to spend her time practising yoga, walking the family Bearded Collie, and going to concerts and to see comedy shows.