Sonja Catherine Vernes is a neuroscientist who is, as of 2022, the head of the Neurogenetics of Vocal Communication Research Group at the University of St Andrews.

[6] Vernes was awarded a European Research Council consolidator grant in 2020, for the BATSPEAK project.

[citation needed] BATSPEAK looks to understand the genomic markers and neural mechanisms that underpin vocal learning.

[8] That year she relocated to the University of St Andrews, where she was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in the School of Biology.

[5] At St Andrews, she has pioneered omics-based approaches to identifying the genes associated with vocal learning in animal models.