William Newsome
Name: William
Surname: Newsome
Section: Bill Newsome is the Harman Family Provostial Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Vincent V.C. Woo Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
Qualification: HARMAN FAMILY PROVOSTIAL PROFESSOR AND PROFESSOR OF NEUROBIOLOGY AND, BY COURTESY, OF PSYCHOLOGY, He received a B.S. degree in physics from Stetson University and a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Newsome is a leading investigator in systems and cognitive neuroscience.
Education and career
Bill Newsome is the Harman Family Provostial Professor of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Vincent V.C. Woo Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. He received a B.S. degree in physics from Stetson University and a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Newsome is a leading investigator in systems and cognitive neuroscience. He has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception and simple forms of decision making. Among his honors are the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics, the Spencer Award, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Dan David Prize of Tel Aviv University, the Karl Spencer Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society, and the Champalimaud Vision Award. His distinguished lectureships include the 13th Annual Marr Lecture at the University of Cambridge the 9th Annual Brenda Milner Lecture at McGill University, and most recently, the Distinguished Visiting Scholar lectures at the Kavli Institute of Brain and Mind, UCSD. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2011. Newsome co-chaired the NIH BRAIN working group, charged with forming a national plan for the coming decade of neuroscience research in the United States. Current Research and Scholarly Interests The long-term goal of our research is to understand the neuronal processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior. To this end we are conducting parallel behavioral and physiological experiments in animals that are trained to perform selected perceptual or eye movement tasks. By recording the activity of cortical neurons during performance of such tasks, we gain initial insights into the relationship of neuronal activity to the animal's behavioral capacities. Hypotheses concerning this relationship are tested by modifying neural activity within local cortical circuits to determine whether behavior is affected in a predictable manner. Computer modelling techniques are then used to develop more refined hypotheses concerning the relationship of brain to behavior that are both rigorous and testable. This combination of behavioral, electrophysiological and computational techniques provides a realistic basis for neurophysiological investigation of cognitive functions such as perception, memory and motor planning. Academic Appointments
achievement
• Professor, Neurobiology
• Professor (By courtesy), Psychology
• Member, Bio-X
• Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Administrative Appointments
• Vincent V.C. Woo Director, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University (2013 - 2020)
• Stanley Center Scientific Advisory Committee, Broad Institute, Boston (2016 - 2021)
• Executive Committee, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain, Simons Foundation, New York (2014 - 2020)
• International Steering Committee, Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University (2015 - 2020)
• Member, Scientific Strategy Advisory Group, The Wellcome Trust, London (2017 - 2019)
• Correspondent, Committee on Human Rights, National Academy of Sciences (2001 - Present)
• Scientific Advisory Board, RIKEN Center for Brain Sciences, Tokyo (2018 - 2022)
Honors & Awards
Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching, Students of the Stanford University School of Medicine (1991, 1997)
Golden Brain Award, Minerva Foundation (1992)
The Rank Prize in Optoelectronics, The Rank Prize Funds, London (1992)
MERIT Award, National Eye Institute (1993)
W. Alden Spencer Award for highly original contributions to research in neurobiology, Columbia University (1994)
Fogarty International Senior Research Fellowship, Fogarty International Center, NIH (1995)
Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation (1995)
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1997)
Elected to membership, National Academy of Sciences, USA (2000)
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (2002)
Award for Outstanding Service to Graduate Students, Students, Stanford University School of Medicine (2003)
Dan David Prize, Dan David Foundation and Tel Aviv University (2004)
Karl Spencer Lashley Award, American Philosophical Society (2010)
Champalimaud Vision Award, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon (2010)
Elected to Membership, The American Philosophical Society (2011)
Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, State University of New York, School of Optometry (2012)
Pepose Award for the Study of Vision, Brandeis University (2015)
Elected to Membership, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017)Program Affiliations
• Symbolic Systems Program
Professional Education
• Ph.D., California Inst. of Technology, Neurobiology (1980)
• Publications
• 1，Shadlen M N, Newsome W T. The variable discharge of cortical neurons: implications for connectivity, computation, and information coding[J]. Journal of neuroscience, 1998, 18(10): 3870-3896.
• 2，Shadlen M N, Newsome W T. Neural basis of a perceptual decision in the parietal cortex (area LIP) of the rhesus monkey[J]. Journal of neurophysiology, 2001, 86(4): 1916-1936.
• 3，Zohary E, Shadlen M N, Newsome W T. Correlated neuronal discharge rate and its implications for psychophysical performance[J]. Nature, 1994, 370(6485): 140-143.
• 4，Maunsell J H R, Newsome W T. Visual processing in monkey extrastriate cortex[J]. Annual review of neuroscience, 1987, 10(1): 363-401.
• 5，Britten K H, Shadlen M N, Newsome W T, et al. The analysis of visual motion: a comparison of neuronal and psychophysical performance[J]. Journal of Neuroscience, 1992, 12(12): 4745-4765.
• 6，Newsome W T, Pare E B. A selective impairment of motion perception following lesions of the middle temporal visual area (MT)[J]. Journal of Neuroscience, 1988, 8(6): 2201-2211.
• 7，Shadlen M N, Newsome W T. Noise, neural codes and cortical organization[J]. Current opinion in neurobiology, 1994, 4(4): 569-579.
• 8，Salzman C D, Britten K H, Newsome W T. Cortical microstimulation influences perceptual judgements of motion direction[J]. Nature, 1990, 346(6280): 174-177.