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Masud Husain has recently joined the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Dept of Experimental Psychology as Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience. He holds a Wellcome Trust Principal Fellowship.

Biography

Masud read Physiological Sciences at Oxford (1981-84) before completing his DPhil in Physiology. He went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, holding a Harkness Fellowship. After completing clinical medical training at Oxford, Masud trained in Neurology. He was a Reader at Imperial College and subsequently moved to UCL where he was Professor of Clinical Neurology and Deputy Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. 

Masud held a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship from 2000-12. He was elected to a Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. His group studies deficits in attention, memory and decision-making in patients with stroke, Parkinson’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The lab’s interests include development of treatments for cognitive deficits in these conditions, as well as cognitive enhancement in healthy people.

Interview

What started your interest in neuroscience?

Inspirational teaching at Oxford combined with curiosity.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in neuroscience over the next 5-10 years?

Making sense of a plethora of data! I think I’ve got to the point where I realize we need to focus on testing principles and conceptual frameworks, rather than simply adding to the burgeoning morass of detail.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Attempting to apply concepts from basic neuroscience to important clinical problems. For example, we’ve come a long way in understanding mechanisms underlying inattention in some neurological patients and even begun to treat them, leveraging knowledge from both animal and human research.