[2016] Professor Emeritus David Willshaw has been awarded the Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience. Professor Willshaw is an Associate Member – and was the first Director of – our Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation. The award is named after Prof Valentino Braitenberg, one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. The major criterion for selection is the impact of the recipient’s research on the neurosciences. Colleague Dr Mark van Rossum says, “David Willshaw is the third recipient of the Valentino Braitenberg award, which is a great recognition for his exceptional work and tireless effort for the computational neuroscience field.” The award will be conferred on Professor Willshaw on 21 September 2016, at the Bernstein Conference in Berlin, at which he will deliver the Valentino Braitenberg Lecture. Increasing understanding of the nervous system Announcing the award on its website, the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience says: David Willshaw's major research interest is the application of the methods of computational neurobiology - mathematical analysis and computer simulation - to an understanding of the development and functioning of the nervous system. His specific areas of interest are: The mechanisms by which retinotopically ordered projections and patterns of ocular dominance are developed between vertebrate eye and brain. The mechanisms for the elimination of polyinnervation in developing muscle. The functioning of the basal ganglia and related structures and their role in Parkinson's Disease. The role of the mammalian hippocampus, cerebellum and neocortex in the associative storage and retrieval of information in the brain. Development of novel algorithms for combinatorial optimisation problems, such as the Travelling Salesman Problem. Useful links Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation Bernstein Conference 2016 Professor Willshaw’s personal web page This article was published on 2024-03-18
