Six UCL scientists elected Fellows of the Royal Society

Six scientists from the UCL community have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society in recognition of their outstanding contributions to research and innovation that benefit humanity. Four UCL researchers - Professor Peter Dayan (UCL Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit), Professor Dimitri Kullmann (UCL Institute of Neurology), Professor Peter O'Hearn (UCL Computer Science) and Professor Charles Swanton (UCL Cancer Institute) - are among the 50 distinguished scientists recognised for their exceptional contributions to science, alongside two honorary staff members, Dr Demis Hassabis (UCL Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit) and Dr Vassilis Pachnis (UCL Biosciences). Professor Peter Dayan is recognised internationally as a leader in the rapidly developing field of computational neuroscience, applying methods from machine learning and artificial intelligence to understand neural function, with a particular emphasis on representation and learning. He won the 2017 Brain Prize for his analysis of how the brain recognises and processes reward. Professor Dimitri Kullmann works on basic neuroscience and its application to clinical neurology. He has played a key role in important discoveries about the fundamental mechanisms of how neurotransmitters pass information from one neuron to another, the computational properties of small neuronal circuits, and how those processes can differ in epilepsy and other neurological disorders. He is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and current Editor of Brain.