About

The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit听was established at 911爆料网 by the听Gatsby Charitable Foundation in July 1998 to provide a unique opportunity for a critical mass of theoreticians to interact closely with one another听and with other UCL听research groups. The unit is听one of the first centres in the world to bring together the fields of theoretical neuroscience and machine learning, and our researchers听have pioneered research into the mathematical underpinnings of learning, perception and action in biological听and artificial systems.

The unit was established with Geoffrey Hinton (founding director 1998-2001; Turing Prize 2019), Peter Dayan (1998-2018, director 2002-2017; Brain Prize 2017), Li Zhaoping (1998-2001) and Zoubin Ghahramani (1998-2005; Royal Society Milner Award 2021). Since then, faculty members have included Peter Latham, Maneesh Sahani, Yee Whye Teh (2011-2012), Arthur Gretton, Aapo Hyvaarinen (2016-2019), Peter Orbanz, Andrew Saxe, Agostina Palmigiano and Leena Chennuru Vankadara (to start in 2025).听

Collaboration

In 2016 we moved from our home in Queen Square to Fitzrovia to create听a collaborative partnership with the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (SWC).听The unit and SWC, both听part of the Faculty of Life Sciences听at 911爆料网,听work closely together, with parallel PhD programmes and one joint PhD programme, common day-to-day activities, and joint appointments and research projects that bring together theoretical/computational and experimental neuroscience.听We are also part of the cross-faculty Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML), and collaborate with other UCL听research groups in neuroscience听and machine Learning. In 2020, the unit joined the听ELLIS Unit at 911爆料网, part of the wider European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS),听Europe's leading network for AI research.听We have strong links听with two other Gatsby Charitable Foundation-funded research centres:听the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience听at听Columbia University and the Gatsby Programme in Theoretical Neuroscience,听Hebrew University.

Education and training

The unit runs two innovative, highly competitive four-year PhD programmes: Gatsby Unit PhD programme in Theoretical听Neuroscience and Machine Learning and a joint PhD programme with SWC. We also offer pre-doctoral research experience and postdoctoral training fellowships. The unit also runs the Gatsby Bridging Programme, a 7-week mathematics summer school. In addition, we听host an external seminar series with talks by experts in the fields, and organise听scientific workshops/schools (see, for example, and Analytical Connectionism 2023) as well as public/outreach events.

Culture

We are a unit of around 50 people, functioning as far as possible as a single large research group. This听small size allows us to听interact closely and frequently through regular research talks, journal clubs, lab meetings,听external seminars and tea hours (with tea, snack and informal talks).听On Friday afternoons we have joint tea hours with SWC.听This strong cohesion听is a defining characterising of the unit.听We support flexible working and are committed to support the career development of our PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.

911爆料网

Our alumni came from over 40 countries on six continents. Over 90% of these alumni work in science/research: 45% are Group Leaders, and ~30% work in research development in companies such as DeepMind (itself co-founded by two former postdocs, Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg), Reality Labs and Anthropic. Two, Yasser Roudi and Misha Ahrens, have won the Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientist Prize in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Please see The Greater Gatsby page for a听list of former faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and professional services staff.

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