Temitope Ajayi obtained her PhD from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she investigated cultural variations in emotion regulation and social attachment. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, she expanded this work to examine how oxytocin-related genetic variation interacts with cultural context to shape social bonding behaviours. Her four years at the Institute produced eight publications in high-impact journals and established collaborations with researchers across three continents. She brought essential cultural perspectives to the Institute's social and affective science portfolio and trained several graduate students in cross-cultural methods. Ajayi left in 2013 to establish her own research group at the University of Lagos as a senior lecturer.