Geraint Rees - Biography#
Geraint Rees graduated in pre-clinical medicine from the University of Cambridge (1988) and in clinical medicine from the University of Oxford (1991). Trained as a neurologist, he obtained his PhD degree from UCL (1999) using functional and structural neuroimaging to study the neural basis of human consciousness. His research career at the California Institute of Technology and UCL has used advanced structural and functional imaging techniques to make fundamental insights into the nature of human visual experience. His work has been decisive in characterising the neural structures and processes that underpin visual experience, helping delineate neural correlates of consciousness.
Between 2008-2014, Rees directed the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, helping build it into one of the world's leading centres for the study of human cognition. Over the last decade while Dean of Life Sciences, his research has become increasingly interdisciplinary. He has used functional and structural imaging to define the neural basis of cognitive breakdown in Huntington's disease, a model neurodegenerative disorder. He pioneered the use of multivariate analysis to functional neuroimaging of cognition (allowing 'brain reading') and subsequently generalised these approaches with machine learning to a number of healthcare applications of advanced time-series analytics with Google DeepMind and Google Health.
Author of more than 398 cited and peer-reviewed article, Geraint Rees has an H index of 79 (Web of Science) or 103 (Google Scholar). He is a member of numerous international societies, has served on editorial boards and serves as reviewer for many journals and funding agencies. As Vice Provost for UCL, he is responsible for providing vision and academic leadership for UCL’s world-leading research, knowledge exchange and global engagement. Working closely with the UCL President & Provost, he provides inspirational academic leadership for UCL’s research, innovation and global engagement activity, and collaborate with other VP offices and Deans to ensure that research and innovation across the university continues to be of the highest quality and sustainability, delivering positive social impact.
