Professor Matteo Carandini (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his invaluable contributions to scientific research.
He is among a cohort of 90 outstanding researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world to be selected as the newest Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
Earning a Fellowship of the Royal Society means joining the most eminent scientists, technologists and engineers from or living and working in the UK and the Commonwealth, alongside a shorter list of Foreign Members.
Professor Carandini’s research focuses on the computations performed by populations of neurons (specialised cells in the brain and nervous system that transmit signals through the body) during sensory behaviour, and on the circuits supporting these computations. He has shown how the activity of neuronal populations is shaped by simple operations such as arithmetical division. Further work revealed surprising features of neural activity across the brain, such as finding that the activity of the visual system is influenced by arousal, body movement, and navigation.
A key part of Professor Carandini’s work involves developing methods to record neural activity during behaviour. He is a proponent of open science, participating in the International Brain Laboratory and in the Neuropixels Consortium, which uses tiny silicon probes to provide high-definition recording of brain activity. In 2024 he was elected to the Academia Europaea.
Professor Carandini commented: "I am delighted that the Royal Society chose to recognise the work that I have done over the years with numerous collaborators. UCL supercharged this work by providing a remarkably collaborative environment, where I share a joint laboratory with the outstanding Kenneth Harris and with trainees from a wide variety of disciplines."
New Fellows were selected from more than 20 UK institutions and came from countries including South Africa, China, Switzerland, Singapore and Malaysia. Distinguished names to be included over the years are Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin. Other notable inclusions on this year’s list are Nobel laureate Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier and the former Chief Scientific Advisor to the US President, Professor Anthony Fauci.
Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, said: "It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.
"Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.
"The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs."
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