Richard Stanislaus Joseph Frackowiak, born 26 March 1950 in London, is a British and French
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
and
neuroscientist
A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...
. He is best known for his role in the development of
neuroimaging
Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incr ...
, as the founding director of the
Functional Imaging Laboratory
The 'Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging'' at University College London is a world-leading interdisciplinary centre for neuroimaging research based in London, United Kingdom. Researchers at the Centre use expertise to investigate how the ...
(FIL) at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = � ...
(UCL) and as one of the initiators, in 2013, of the
Human Brain Project
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is a large ten-year scientific research project, based on exascale supercomputers, that aims to build a collaborative ICT-based scientific research infrastructure to allow researchers across Europe to advance knowle ...
(HBP), a ten-year European project coordinated by the
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...
(EPFL) with the goal of advancing knowledge in the fields of neuroscience, computing and brain-related medicine.
Biography
Youth and education
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, his father fought on different fronts in the ranks of the
Polish 1st Armoured Division (''1 Dywizja Pancerna''), his wartime engagements culminating in the
Normandy theatre of operations (6 June – 12 September 1944). His mother took part in the
Warsaw uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
(1 August – 2 October 1944), during which she was captured and interned at a series of
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
culminating in
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...
. After the camp was liberated in April 1945, she went to England where her sister was living. It was through the
Polish émigré community in London that she met her future husband.
Born in London five years later, Richard Frackowiak won a scholarship to
Latymer Upper School
(Slowly Therefore Surely)
, established =
, closed =
, sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School
, type = Public schoolIndependent day school
, head_label = H ...
in that city, but learned Polish at home with his parents and at Polish school on Saturdays (he jokes that he speaks a Polish that dates to 1945). At the age of 15 he began to think about a career in medicine, inspired by the family doctor, a Polish bachelor who often visited the family and who had also taken part in the
Warsaw uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
. The stories the doctor told about working as a surgeon for the
resistance, operating in cellars in rudimentary conditions, left a profound impression on the teenage boy. At school he distinguished himself in biology, chemistry and physics and showed an early fascination for the workings of the brain.
He undertook his
medical studies at
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...
, to which he also won a scholarship, and he completed the final three years of those studies at the
Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clo ...
Medical School, which later merged with the medical school of
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = � ...
(UCL). In 1983 he defended his
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degre ...
thesis on the quantitative measurement of
cerebral blood flow
Cerebral circulation is the movement of blood through a network of cerebral arteries and veins supplying the brain. The rate of cerebral blood flow in an adult human is typically 750 milliliters per minute, or about 15% of cardiac output. Art ...
by
positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, ...
(PET).
Personal life
Frackowiak has been married twice and has three children from his first marriage. He lives in Paris with his second wife, science journalist
Laura Spinney.
Professional career

From 1984 to 1993, Frackowiak directed the neurology service of the
Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of H ...
in London, and from 1988 to 1993 he was deputy director of the
Medical Research Council Cyclotron Unit at the same hospital.
In 1990, he took up a joint chair of neurology at Hammersmith and the
UCL Institute of Neurology in
Queen Square, London where, in 1994, he founded the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and its Functional Imaging Laboratory (FIL). Terry Jones was his mentor in neuroimaging, and
Karl J. Friston,
Chris Frith and
Raymond Dolan were founding principal investigator colleagues at the FIL.
In 1998 he was named director of the
UCL Institute of Neurology, a post he held until 2002. Between 2002 and 2009 he was Vice-Provost (Special Projects) of UCL, and a proponent of a failed attempt to merge
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...
and UCL.
Between 2003 and 2009 he directed the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) of the
École normale supérieure (Paris)
The ''École normale supérieure - PSL'' (; also known as ''ENS'', ''Normale sup, ''Ulm'' or ''ENS Paris'') is a '' grande école'' university in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL) ...
, where he and others created a joint Masters programme in Brain and Mind Sciences between what was then
Pierre and Marie Curie University
Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the ...
(part of
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de So ...
), the École normale supérieure and UCL. He sits on the Board of directors of the
Brain and Spine Institute in Paris, whose neuroimaging activities he helped set up.
He served as scientific advisor to the President-Director General of
the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) between 2007 and 2014, and in 2010 he led an international jury selecting the best research projects of the
French ''instituts hospitalo-universitaires'' (IHU) investment programme created the previous year by the French President
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...
. Concurrently he joined the jury of the ''Initiative d'excellence'' (IDEX) partner programme, that was designed to promote the consolidation and transformation of French universities.
In 2009, he was named professor and head of the neurology service of the
Lausanne University Hospital
The Lausanne University Hospital (french: Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, CHUV), in Lausanne, is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland.
The Lausanne University Hospital is linked to the Faculty of Biology and Medicine ...
of the
University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switze ...
(UNIL) in
Switzerland. In 2013, he took up a post as titular professor at the
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...
(EPFL), in the laboratory of neuroscientist
Henry Markram’s
Blue Brain Project
The Blue Brain Project is a Swiss brain research initiative that aims to create a digital reconstruction of the mouse brain. The project was founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of ''École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne'' (E ...
. With Markram and physicist Karlheinz Meier, he launched the
Human Brain Project
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is a large ten-year scientific research project, based on exascale supercomputers, that aims to build a collaborative ICT-based scientific research infrastructure to allow researchers across Europe to advance knowle ...
, which was financed partly by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
, becoming its medical co-director.
He retired from his clinical and HBP-related activities in 2015, but remains scientifically active as a titular professor at the EPFL and as a permanent visitor at the École normale supérieure in Paris. He is a professor emeritus at UCL.
As chair of the medical sciences committee of
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
-based
Science Europe, in 2016 he lobbied successfully for exemptions to the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
(EU)’s
General Data Protection Regulation, to facilitate data-led clinical and public health research in the EU.
Research

Frackowiak first became interested in the
pathophysiology
Pathophysiology ( physiopathology) – a convergence of pathology with physiology – is the study of the disordered physiological processes that cause, result from, or are otherwise associated with a disease or injury. Pathology is t ...
of various
neurological disorder
A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakn ...
s. His research formed the basis of the clinical applications of
positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, ...
(PET). In the early 1990s he turned his attention to the imagery of cerebral functions, and his group became a leader in the study of functional cerebral localisations, notably through the application of
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which provides high-quality structural and functional images with high
spatial resolution
In physics and geosciences, the term spatial resolution refers to distance between independent measurements, or the physical dimension that represents a pixel of the image. While in some instruments, like cameras and telescopes, spatial resoluti ...
and without
radiation exposure
Radiation is a moving form of energy, classified into ionizing and non-ionizing type. Ionizing radiation is further categorized into electromagnetic radiation (without matter) and particulate radiation (with matter). Electromagnetic radiation con ...
. The automated image generation and analysis process was standardised to create functional
brain maps (
brain morphometry
Brain morphometry is a subfield of both morphometry and the brain sciences, concerned with the measurement of brain structures and changes thereof during brain development, development, aging, learning, disease and brain evolution, evolution. Sinc ...
based on
voxel
In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. ...
s). These techniques made it possible to demonstrate the existence of the brain's dynamic
neuronal plasticity, both in its functions and in its structure, and both in normal subjects and in patients with
neurological
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
and
neuropsychiatric
Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neurop ...
disorders. Others of the group's studies showed the ability of the brain to reorganise itself after
traumatic brain injury
A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic b ...
, through practice and learning.
Two editions of the textbook ''Human Brain Function'', co-edited by Frackowiak and published by
Academic Press
Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier.
Academic Press publishes refere ...
in 1997 and 2004, summarise the research conducted at the FIL over ten years. In January 2021, he had an
h index
The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...
of 210.
Distinctions (selection)
* 1995 founder member of the
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
* 1997 Neuronal Plasticity Prize (with
Antonio Damasio
Antonio Damasio ( pt, António Damásio) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist. He is currently the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, as well as Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, ...
and
Michael Merzenich
Michael Matthias Merzenich ( ; born 1942 in Lebanon, Oregon) is an American neuroscientist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. He took the sensory cortex maps developed by his predecessors (Archie Tunturi, Clinto ...
)
* 1997 Prize of the Feldberg Foundation for Anglo-German Scientific Exchange
* 1999
Doctor honoris causa
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...
of the
University of Liège
The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301� ...
* 2000 founding fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences
* 2000 honorary member of the
American Neurological Association
The American Neurological Association (ANA) is a professional society of academic neurologists and neuroscientists devoted to advancing the goals of academic neurology; to training and educating neurologists and other physicians in the neurologic ...
* 2003
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name o ...
(with
Eleanor Maguire
Eleanor Anne Maguire (born 27 March 1970) is an Irish neuroscientist. Since 2007, she has been Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow.
Early life and educa ...
and others at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = � ...
) "for presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens"
* 2004 K-J. Zülch Prize of the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
for the Advancement of Science, for "imaging measurement methods to investigate the functional architecture of the human brain"
* 2004–2007 President of the
British Neuroscience Association
The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is a scientific society with around 2,500 members. Starting out as an informal gathering of scientists meeting at the Black Hourse Public House in London to discuss brain-related topics (the 'London Blac ...
* 2009–2010 President of the
European Brain and Behaviour Society The European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) is a scientific society founded in 1968 whose stated purpose is the exchange of information between European scientists interested in the relationships between brain mechanisms and behaviour. It is the ...
* 2013 member of the
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
* 2020 corresponding member of the
Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning ( pl, Polska Akademia Umiejętności), headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of scien ...
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frackowiak, Richard
21st-century French physicians
20th-century British medical doctors
British neurologists
Neuroimaging researchers
Academic staff of the École Normale Supérieure
Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Academics of University College London
Academic staff of the University of Lausanne
Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Members of Academia Europaea
1950 births
Medical doctors from London
Living people