Honorary Degrees for Professor Karl Friston FRS & Professor Colin Blakemore FRS
Posted on 17 August 2011
Professor Karl Friston FRS
http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Friston/
Professor Gary Green (Director of YNiC), introducing Professor Friston at the graduation ceremony, noted that “His contributions have been seminal in tackling one of the remaining unanswered questions for mankind: How does the human brain function and, just as importantly, what happens when it goes wrong? Karl Friston is a world authority on the use of non-invasive brain imaging. He has developed and introduced most of the key techniques for analysing the information that is generated by modern brain scanners.”
Professor Colin Blakemore FRS
http://www.neuroscience.ox.ac.uk/directory/colin-blakemore
Colin Blakemore is a neurobiologist specializing in vision and the development of the brain. His major contribution to neuroscience is the part he played in establishing the concept of neuronal plasticity – the capacity of the brain to reorganize itself as a result of the pattern of activity passing through its connections. Blakemore was one of the first to demonstrate that the visual part of the cerebral cortex undergoes active, adaptive change during a specific period shortly after birth, and he argued that this helps the brain to match itself to the sensory environment. He has been the Chief Executive of the British Medical Research Council and is widely acclaimed as a brilliant communicator of science.