William Newsome

Last updated
William Newsome
Born (1952-06-05) June 5, 1952 (age 73)
Education
Scientific career
Institutions

William Thomas Newsome (born June 5, 1952) is a neuroscientist at Stanford University who works to "understand the neuronal processes that mediate visual perception and visually guided behavior." [1] [2] He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Contents

According to an article in PNAS, "What sets Newsome's research apart from many other studies in this area is that the techniques he uses—primarily, stimulation of brain areas of primates with microelectrodes—have helped demonstrate cause and effect rather than merely show a correlation between behavior and activity of the brain." [3]

Personal Life & Views

Newsome has been open about his Christian faith and has engaged in public dialogues about reconciling science and religious belief. [4] He has participated in interviews and podcasts discussing topics such as free will, consciousness, and the relationship between neuroscience and faith. [5] [6]

Awards

Publications

His publications include:

Legacy & Influence

Newsome is widely regarded as a pioneer in systems neuroscience. His combination of rigorous experiments, causal manipulations, and computational insight has significantly advanced how neuroscientists think about perception and decision. Many labs trace conceptual and methodological lineages back to his work.

Beyond his scientific contributions, as founding director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, he played a key role shaping Stanford’s neuroscience culture and infrastructure. [13]

See also

Notes and references

  1. Newsome Lab Research Interests
  2. "Reports of the President and of the Treasurer". 1996.
  3. 1 2 Biography of William T. Newsome
  4. Newsome, William. "A neuroscientist balances science and faith." Stanford Medicine Magazine, Summer 2006.
  5. Bill Newsome | Neuroscience, Faith & Free Will
  6. Bill Newsome, Test of Faith
  7. HHMI Profile
  8. "Stanford neuroscientist to be honored with Pepose Award". BrandeisNOW. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  9. "A selective impairment of motion perception following lesions of the middle temporal visual area" The Journal of Neuroscience (1988)
  10. "Correlated neuronal discharge rate and its implications for psychophysical performance" Nature (1994)
  11. "Noise, neural codes and cortical organization" Current Opinion in Biology (1994)
  12. "The variable discharge of cortical neurons: implications for connectivity, computation, and information coding" The Journal of Neuroscience (1998)