Rosalyn J. Moran is an Irish and British neuroscientist and computational psychiatrist. She is deputy director of the

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her research looks to understand neural algorithms through brain connectivity.

Early life and education

Moran grew up in Ireland, where she studied applied mathematics at the local boys school. Moran was an undergraduate and postgraduate student in electronic engineering at the

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. Her doctoral research applied information theory to biomedical signal processing. During her PhD, she met a scientist who was combining electrical and chemical analysis of schizophrenia, and became interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience. She was a postdoctoral researcher at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

supported by the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging.

Research and career

Moran moved to

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populou ...

in 2012, where she spent four years as an assistant professor. She returned to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2016 and joined the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

as a senior lecturer. In 2018, she was made associate professor at

. She became deputy director of the King's Institute for

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

in 2022. Moran's research combines artificial intelligence, Bayesian inference and experimental neurobiology to understand brain connectivity and neural processing. She is interested in how neurotransmitters (e.g. noradrenaline, serotonin) in decision making. She uses deep networks to model diseases, with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases and schizophrenia. Moran has investigated the

free energy principle The free energy principle is a mathematical principle of information physics. Its application to fMRI brain imaging data as a theoretical framework suggests that the brain reduces surprise or uncertainty by making predictions based on internal m ...

, an all-purpose mode of the brain and human behaviour. The free energy principle is based on surprise minimisation, brains work to minimise free energy. Moran has argued that the free energy principle offers an alternative rationale for

generative artificial intelligence Generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses generative models to produce text, images, videos, or other forms of data. These models Machine learning, learn the underlyin ...

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moran, Rosalyn Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of University College Dublin Academics of King's College London Irish women psychiatrists Irish psychiatrists Irish women neuroscientists 21st-century Irish women scientists Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom