International science prize awarded to St John’s Research Fellow for work on understanding the brain
“This prize represents a vote of confidence from the international scientific community that this is the right path"
A neuroscientist from St John’s College has won a global prize for young scientists for his research on how different parts of the brain work together.
Dr Andrea Luppi, a Research Fellow at St John’s, was awarded the 2024 Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) Prize in the category of Formal Sciences at the organisation’s ninth international congress in Bulgaria this week.
Dr Luppi, who is also a Wellcome Early Career Fellow, said: “This prize is a great honour but also a responsibility, because it recognises past achievement but also future promise. My work is about understanding how different parts of the brain work together, and it is made possible by collaborating with colleagues from many different fields.
“Crossing disciplinary boundaries can be risky, so for me this prize represents a vote of confidence from the international scientific community that this is the right path."
The annual USERN prizes are open to junior scientists and researchers worldwide who are aged under 40. The awards recognise remarkable achievements in multidisciplinary science in five categories: Formal Sciences, Physical and Chemical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.
Dr Luppi was presented with his prize at the annual USERN congress and Prize Awarding Festival held from 8-10 November at the Medical University of Plovdiv, for his work on ‘synergistic information across artificial and biological intelligence.’
Dr Luppi comes from a background in philosophy and cognitive science. His research investigates how brain function arises from the complex interplay of brain structure and dynamics. He studies how pharmacological and pathological perturbations such as coma, anaesthesia and psychedelics reshape brain function. Working at the intersection of integrative and computational neuroscience, he combines approaches from information theory, network science and whole-brain computational modelling.
The most prominent piece of research related to the USERN prize is Dr Luppi’s 2022 article in Nature Neuroscience, titled A synergistic core for human brain evolution and cognition (Luppi et al), produced as a PhD student at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
He was also recognised for his 2024 review, Information decomposition and the informational architecture of the brain, which was published in the journal, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Dr Luppi receives a trophy and medal and was invited to give the Prize Laureate Lecture in Formal Sciences at the congress.
Banner image: Shutterstock/ArtemisDiana.
Published: 15/11/2024