Headshot of Adrienne Fairhall.

Adrienne Fairhall

Professor of physiology and biophysics, University of Washington;
Contributing editor, The Transmitter

Adrienne Fairhall is professor of physiology and biophysics and adjunct professor of physics and applied mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle. She co-directs the Computational Neuroscience Program at the University of Washington with Eric Shea-Brown. Her work focuses on dynamic neural computation, with a particular interest in the interplay between cellular and circuit dynamics and coding in a wide variety of model systems, including Hydra, Drosophila, birds and primates.

Fairhall obtained her honors degree in theoretical physics from the Australian National University and her Ph.D. in statistical physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She received her postdoctoral training at the NEC Research Institute with Bill Bialek and at Princeton University with Michael J. Berry II.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Nonhuman brain slice.

Nonhuman primate research to lose federal funding at major European facility

The Dutch Senate has ordered the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands to shift its funding away from primate experiments by 2030.

By Lauren Schenkman
30 October 2025 | 4 min read
Image of potentially duplicated research figures.

Image integrity issues create new headache for subarachnoid hemorrhage research

First-time sleuths found potentially problematic images in hundreds of papers about early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

By Lauren Schneider
30 October 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of mouse brain slices stained in red and blue.

Ramping up cortical activity in early life sparks autism-like behaviors in mice

The findings add fuel to the long-running debate over how an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory signaling contributes to the autism.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
30 October 2025 | 6 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.