Prof Simon Laughlin FRS

  • Emeritus Professor of Neurobiology
Prof Simon Laughlin FRS

Contact

Location

  • Room S35

About

1970 B.A. Cantab. (Zoology) 1974 M.A. Cantab. 1974 Ph.D. in Neurobiology, Australian National University, Canberra. Supervisors, GA Horridge, R Menzel 1974-1975 Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Australian National University. 1976 Guest Research Worker, Institut fur Tierphysiologie, Freie Universität, Berlin. 1981-1982 Visiting Research Scientist, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University. 1975-1983 Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Australian National University. 1983-1984 Senior Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Australian National University. 1984-1996 Lecturer, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK 1996-1999 Reader in Sensory Neuroscience, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK 1999-2004 Rank Research Professor in Opto-Electronics, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK 2004 - Professor of Neurobiology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK; 2015 - Emeritus Professor of Neurobiology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.

Research

Research interests:

  • Structure, function, evolution and design of eyes and neural circuits
  • Energy efficiency, neuronal function and circuit design
  • The biophysics of energy and information
  • Visual ecology
  • Insect vision

 

 

Key publications

Attwell, D., and Laughlin, S.B. (2001). An energy budget for signaling in the grey matter of the brain. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism 21, 1133–1145.

Niven, J.E., Anderson, J.C., and Laughlin, S.B. (2007). Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energy-information trade-offs in neural coding. PLoS Biology 5, e116.

Fain, G.L., Hardie, R., and Laughlin, S.B. (2010). Phototransduction and the evolution of photoreceptors. Current Biology 20, R114–R124.

Sengupta, B., Stemmler, M., Laughlin, S.B., and Niven, J.E. (2010). Action potential energy efficiency varies among neuron types in vertebrates and invertebrates. PLoS Computational Biology 6, e1000840.

Sterling, P. and Laughlin, S. Principles of Neural Design. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2015

Heras, F.J.H. and Laughlin, S.B. Optimizing the use of a sensor resource for opponent polarization coding. Peer J. 5 e2772

Full list of publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4659-6543

 

Teaching and supervision

Part II Zoology. Module ZM4 Neuroethology, 3 lectures. Visual ecology - motion vision

Part II PDN, Module N7 Neural circuits and behaviour,  4 lectures Design of neural circuits