Zoé's youthful PhD breaks new ground in neuroscience

After starting university at just 15, Zoé Schelp has graduated a decade later with a psychology PhD that breaks new ground in cognitive neuroscience.

Zoé’s graduation ceremony at the Town Hall came just days after the publication of her first scientific paper as lead author.

Her thesis, “Mapping the Silent Mind,” explored anauralia, a little-known phenomenon where people can’t imagine sounds.

The silent mind has held a particular fascination for Zoé, both through her interest in neuroscience and cognition and because she’s a musician. (She herself can imagine sounds.)

Originally from Berlin, she started in economics at the University of Canterbury before switching to psychology after a semester.

Zoé's advice to students, particularly those starting young, is simple: "It's OK to change your mind. At any stage."

She’s big on making time for life beyond study.

Outside her research, Zoé has taught and performed violin, volunteered with Anxiety NZ and church youth groups, explored New Zealand's back roads in a four-wheel drive club, and developed a passion for sewing and crafts.

As she graduates, Zoé is quick to thank the many people who helped her along the way, especially supervisor Professor Tony Lambert, her co-supervisors Suzanne Purdy, Reece Roberts and Sam Mehr, Canterbury’s Randolph Grace, family, friends, and her husband James, whose encouragement and support, she says, made the journey possible.

She is looking out for postdoctoral roles in New Zealand or Germany but over summer she may do that thing she hardly ever does – take a breather.