After nearly eight years educating and entertaining readers with his reports on the latest psychology research, our staff writer Dr Alex Fradera is leaving us to begin the next chapter of his career.

And what a varied career it has already been: an alumnus of the Mind Hacks group of young bloggers that formed in 2004, Alex completed a PhD at UCL in 2005 in the area of autobiographical memory before entering the world of occupational psychology as a consultant and, in 2011, establishing the popular BPS Occupational Digest (later incorporated into the main Research Digest). Alongside all this, he is an admired teacher and performer in improvised theatre. His creativity, and his diverse experiences and expertise have always shone through in his reports for the Research Digest (thank you Alex!). We wish him the very best in his new role working in the NHS in a therapeutic capacity as he begins the path towards becoming a clinical psychologist.

To celebrate his writings for the Research Digest, here are Alex’s greatest hits (in terms of audience page views), covering research on sexual posing to the importance of critical thinking:

Brainwave study suggests sexual posing, but not bare skin, leads to automatic objectification

Thinking in a foreign language, we’re less prone to superstition

Taking a photo of something impairs your memory of it, but the reasons remain largely mysterious

Psychologists have profiled the kind of person who is willing to confront anti-social behaviour

Class is still written into our psychology – working class folk are more empathic, selfless, vigilant and fatalistic

Massive study finds that a sizeable minority of us are in jobs that don’t fit our primary occupational interests

A daily cold shower seems to have some psychological benefits

No “far transfer” – chess, memory training and music just make you better at chess, memory training and music

Most children and teens with gender dysphoria also have multiple other psychological issues

Critical thinking skills are more important than IQ for making good decisions in life

Alex’s departure means that we have a vacancy on our team. If you think you could be the person to fill his shoes, here is more information on the role and how to apply (closing date Nov 30, 2018).