Dr. Mark Ungless
Head of Safety at Slingshot AI, Trustee and Fmr. Director of Data Science, AI & Research at Mental Health Innovations, Fmr. faculty at Imperial College London and University of Oxford
Dr. Mark Ungless is a neuroscientist and data scientist. As Head of Safety at Slingshot AI, he leads efforts to keep Ash safe for users, drawing on deep expertise in digital mental health data science and crisis support.
He is also a Trustee at Mental Health Innovations (the charity behind Shout - the UK's first and only free, 24/7 crisis text service - and The Mix), where he was previously Director of Data Science, AI, and Research. There he founded the Data Insights team, which under his leadership received the 2025 Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality and Value from the Royal Statistical Society.
Before moving into digital mental health, Dr. Ungless spent more than two decades conducting research in psychology and neuroscience. He held faculty positions at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, where he led a research group investigating dopamine neurons and their role in intelligent behavior and associated mental health disorders such as addiction and schizophrenia. He has published a number of influential, highly-cited articles in prominent journals including Nature, Science, and Cell.
Explore their work
Uniform inhibition of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area by aversive stimuli
Science, 2004.
A landmark study reshaping understanding of how dopamine neurons respond to aversive events, with broad implications for addiction and psychiatric disorders.
Are you or aren't you? Challenges associated with physiologically identifying dopamine neurons
Trends in Neurosciences, 2012.
An influential methodological review on accurately identifying dopamine neurons in research.
Data science for digital crisis support at Shout (Mental Health Innovations)
Leads the data science and AI work behind Shout, recognized with the 2025 Royal Statistical Society Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.
