Dr Will Lawn
Lecturer
Research Area
I am currently a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at King’s College London. My main research areas are: adolescent cannabis addiction, the use of wearable devices to detect opioid overdose, and the relationships between reward processing and addictive drug use.
Biography
Background
I studied Natural Sciences (Experimental Psychology) at the University of Cambridge and then completed a PhD at University College London, supervised by Professor Val Curran and Professor Celia Morgan. My PhD examined drug and non-drug reward processing alterations in nicotine and cannabis dependence.
I then worked as a post-doctoral research associate on a clinical trial investigating ketamine as a treatment for alcohol dependence (KARE). Subsequently, I co-ordinated a 4-year MRC-funded project which examined whether adolescence represents a vulnerable period for cannabis-related harms (CannTeen). Then I moved to KCL to work with Prof Sir John Strang on a project about the use of wearable devices to detect opioid overdose.
Current work
I now work as a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at KCL. I run the Addictions 3rd year module as well as continuing my active research interests.
Areas of particular interest
My main research areas: adolescent cannabis addiction, the use of wearable devices to detect opioid overdose, the relationships between reward processing and addictive drug use, and the use of ketamine in the treatment of addiction.