Ingrid Schoon is chair of social policy at the Social Research Institute, University College London, Institute of Education. She is a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Social Science Centre (WZB) in Berlin.

Her research focuses on the study of risk and resilience, in particular during the transition from dependent childhood to independent adulthood, asking 1) to what extent and how do social conditions, in particular socio-economic adversity, affect individual thinking, feeling and behaviour; 2) to what extent and in what circumstances can individuals succeed against the odds and steer their own life course?; and 3) what can be done to improve the life chances of the most vulnerable? Her studies are guided by an integrated psycho-social developmental systems approach, mapping human development over time and in context using longitudinal data.