Neil Burgess (neuroscientist)

Neil Burgess (born 13 July 1966) is a British neuroscientist. He has been a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London since 2004^[4] and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow since 2011.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} He has made important contributions to understanding memory and spatial cognition by developing computational models relating behaviour to activity in biological neural networks.^[1]

Neil Burgess FRS FMedSci
Burgess in 2017
Born	(1966-07-13) 13 July 1966 (age 59) Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England
Education	Newnham Croft Primary School Parkside Community College Hills Road Sixth Form College
Alma mater	University College London University of Manchester
Spouse	Cathryn McDowell ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	3
Awards	Royal Society University Research Fellowship[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Neuroscience[2]
Institutions	University College London
Thesis	Neural networks, human memory and optimisation (1990)
Doctoral advisor	Michael Moore[3]
Website	www.ucl.ac.uk/icn/neilburgess

Early life and education

Neil Burgess was born on 13 July 1966 in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, to Alan and Lore Burgess (née Freudenthal). He was educated at three schools in Cambridge: Newnham Croft Primary School, Parkside Community College, and Hills Road Sixth Form College.^[8]

Burgess studied mathematics and physics as an undergraduate at University College London, graduating with first-class honours in 1987.^[1] He then completed postgraduate study in theoretical physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, supervised by Michael Moore,^[3][9] where he began working on models of memory with Graham Hitch.^[1] Burgess was awarded a PhD in 1990.^[3]

Research and career

Burgess has developed models to explain how networks of neurons allow us to represent, remember and imagine our location within the surrounding environment.^[1] These models provide a quantitative understanding of how spatial memory,^[10] episodic memory and autobiographical memory^[11] function (and dysfunction) depend on human brain activity. With Tom Hartley at the University of York and Colin Lever at Durham University he both predicted and discovered neurons representing environmental boundaries.^[1][12]

Awards and honours

Burgess was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2009 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017^[1] having previously held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship from 1993 to 2001.^[8]

Personal life

Burgess married Cathryn Jane McDowell in 1997. They have two sons and one daughter.^[8]