Richard Graham Michael Morris, CBE FRS FRSE (born 27 June 1948),[1] is a British neuroscientist. He is known for developing the Morris water navigation task,[2] for proposing the concept of synaptic tagging (along with Julietta U. Frey (formerly published under Uwe Frey), and for his work on the function of the hippocampus.[3][4]

Richard G.M. Morris

Born
Richard Graham Michael Morris

(1948-06-27) 27 June 1948 (age 75)
Alma mater
Known forMorris water navigation task
Awards2016 Brain Prize
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh

He is the director of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems (Edinburgh)[5] and the Wolfson Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh.[6] Since 1994 he has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh[7] and since 1997, he has been a fellow of the Royal Society.[8] Morris was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007.[1]

Morris, together with Tim Bliss (Francis Crick Institute) and Graham Collingridge (University of Bristol) were named as winners of the 2016 Brain Prize for their discoveries about the way synaptic connections in the hippocampus are strengthened by stimulation. The process, known as long-term potentiation (LTP), forms the basis of the ability to learn and to remember.[9]

He was elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences in April 2020.[10]

Education edit

Morris received his BA in natural science from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and D.Phil. from the University of Sussex in 1973. He was a lecturer at the University of St Andrews from 1977 to 1986 where he developed the Morris water navigation task. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1986.

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Prof Richard Morris, CBE, FRS". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. ^ Morris, R. G. M. (May 1981). "Spatial localization does not require the presence of local cues". Learning and Motivation. 12 (2): 239–260. doi:10.1016/0023-9690(81)90020-5.
  3. ^ Andersen, P; Morris, R; Amaral, D; Bliss, T; O'Keefe, J, eds. (2007). The Hippocampus Book. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. xx+832. ISBN 978-0-19-510027-3. OCLC 64444087.
  4. ^ Nadel, Lynn (November 2007). "Book review: The hippocampus book, edited by P. Andersen, R. Morris, D. Amaral, T. Bliss, & J. O'Keefe". Hippocampus. 17 (11): 1013–1016. doi:10.1002/hipo.20355.
  5. ^ "People/Administration". Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. ^ "People/Academic Staff – Prof. Richard Morris, CBE, FRS". Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Professor Richard Graham Michael Morris CBE FRS FRSE, FMedSci". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  8. ^ "Fellows of the Royal Society". Royal Society. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Professor Richard Morris, profile: Scientist and Brain Prize winner". The Independent. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  10. ^ "2020 NAS Election". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 April 2020.

External links edit