Richard Morris
Richard Morris
Richard Morris received his BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and his D.Phil from Sussex University. Currently, he is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Associate of the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante. He is a Fellow, of the Royal Society, London and in 2007 was made Commander of the British Empire.
Richard Morris has a longstanding interest is the neurobiology of learning and memory. His work focuses on the role of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in memory formation and consolidation. It has involved the development of novel behavioural tasks (including the watermaze and the event arena) and joint theoretical ideas such as the concept of synaptic tagging and capture. Current projects include optogenetic investigation of neuromodulation of cellular memory consolidation, and the role of prior knowledge, particularly ‘schemas’, in systems memory consolidation. One group in his lab is investigating the relevance of these ideas with respect to memory enhancement and the development of novel therapeutics for Alzheimer’s Disease.
The Brain Prize 2016 is also awarded to:
