Richard Passingham

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2009 in recognition of his achievements.

Passingham started by investigating each area of the frontal lobes in macaques, and his earlier findings were summarised in his seminal book ‘The Frontal Lobes and Voluntary Action’ (1993). When brain imaging became available for studies of the human brain, Passingham was amongst the first to use it. He carried out PET studies from 1988 at the Hammersmith Hospital and fMRI studies from 1995 at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (UCL), where he was among the founding Principal Investigators of the Centre. Thus, for much of his career he had a research group working in Oxford with macaques and rTMS in humans, and a group working with brain imaging of humans in London.

Passingham is currently Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, and is also an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. In addition, he is Emeritus Honorary Principal Investigator at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at University College London. His career has been spent at these two institutions, and from 1991–1995 also at the MRC Cyclotron Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital London. He has published over 200 research papers and eight books (listed below).

He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. Passingham studied for an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Philosophy in 1966 followed in 1967 by a MSc in Abnormal Psychology at the Maudsley Hospital, London. In 1970, he undertook his examination for promotion to Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London.

Richard Edward Passingham FRS (born 16 August 1943) is a British neuroscientist. He is an international authority on the frontal lobe mechanisms for decision making and executive control. He is amongst the most highly cited neuroscientists.