Janet Werker

Janet F. Werker
Werker at the University of British Columbia (2015)

Janet F. Werker OC FRSC is a researcher in the field of developmental psychology. She researches the foundations of monolingual and bilingual infant language acquisition in infants at the University of British Columbia's Infant Studies Centre. Her research has pioneered what are now accepted baselines in the field, showing that language learning begins in early infancy (even before birth) and is shaped by experience across the first year of life.[1]

Werker received her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of British Columbia in 1982.[2] She is a Canada Research Chair and Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia and is the recipient of the 2015 SSHRC Gold Medal.[3][4] On 29 December 2017, Werker was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, "for her internationally renowned contributions to our understanding of speech perception and language acquisition in infants."[5]

In 2019, she was named one of four recipients of a William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science.[6] In 2020, Werker was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[7]

  1. ^ Government of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (14 March 2017). "Gold Medal: Janet Werker". Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Janet Werker Biography & CV". Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  3. ^ St Onge, Yoan (16 November 2015). "Five of Canada's top researchers receive SSHRC Impact Awards". SSHRC. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Janet Werker". UBC Department of Psychology. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  5. ^ General, The Office of the Secretary to the Governor. "The Governor General of Canada". Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  6. ^ "2019 William James Fellow Award Goes to Phelps, Gilbert, Nadel, Werker". Observer. 31 (9): 11. 31 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Developmental psychologist Janet Werker named member of National Academy of Sciences". UBC Department of Psychology. Retrieved 29 October 2020.