Susan Greenfield, 61, was raised in west London, where her father was an electrician and her mother a dancer. She studied psychology and neurochemistry at Oxford University. Since 1996, she has been professor of pharmacology at Oxford, where she heads a research group into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In 1998, she became the first woman director of the Royal Institution, but was controversially dismissed in 2010. She was awarded a CBE in 2000 and granted a life peerage in 2001. Her latest book, You And Me: The Neuroscience Of Identity, is published by Notting Hill Editions.

When were you happiest?
In 1978, working in France for a year. It was my first time working abroad.

What is your greatest fear?
Being physically dependent on others.

What is your earliest memory?
A horrible blue coat with matching muff that my mother made me wear. I was about two or three.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
An Italian neuroscientist called Rita Levi-Montalcini. She is now over 100. Under Mussolini she was forbidden from practising medicine because of the race laws. So she set up a lab in her basement, and the work she did there laid the foundations for her winning the Nobel prize.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I am told I am impatient.

Aside from a property, what's the most expensive thing you've bought?
A Giorgio Armani suit.

What is your most treasured possession?
My iPhone.

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Keira Knightley.

What would your super power be?
Telepathy.

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Elizabeth I – she is my role model.

What is your most unappealing habit?
Sucking my thumb when I am concentrating.

What is your favourite smell?
The fragrance of tobacco plants.

What is your favourite word?
"If."

What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?
That I am not serious about what I do.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Eyelash extensions.

What do you owe your parents?
So much. They never had any money, but they were living proof that if you have loving parents who give you the right values, whether or not you are rich is unimportant.

To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
My two dead grandmothers, because I never really appreciated them.

Have you ever said 'I love you' and not meant it?
Not at the time. In retrospect, I've thought, "God, I couldn't have meant that."

What is the worst job you've done?
On the potato machine at a kibbutz.

What has been your biggest disappointment?
Although I have a driving licence, I don't drive – I am very bad at it.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Ancient Greece – as long as I wasn't a slave.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Introducing my mum and dad to the Queen.

What keeps you awake at night?
Wondering how the brain generates consciousness and other questions.

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