Headshot of Kenneth Harris.

Kenneth Harris

Professor of quantitative neuroscience
University College London

Kenneth Harris is professor of quantitative neuroscience at University College London. Together with Matteo Carandini, he co-directs the Cortical Processing Laboratory. The aim of the laboratory is to understand the computations performed by neuronal populations in the visual system, the underlying neural circuits and the way these computations lead to perceptual decisions. Current research efforts focus on how cortical populations integrate sensory information with information from within the brain.

Harris received a B.A. and Part III in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1993 and a Ph.D. in neural computation from University College London in 1998. He then moved to Rutgers University for postdoctoral work, where he eventually opened a laboratory studying neuronal population activity in the neocortex. He next moved to Imperial College London before joining the faculty at University College London.

Harris received the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2005 and the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship in 2010. He was named a Burroughs Wellcome Trust Investigator and a Simons Investigator in 2014.

Explore more from The Transmitter

How energy determines where proteins are produced in neurons

Tatjana Tchumatchenko explains how mathematical modeling elucidates whether ion-channel proteins are produced locally in the soma or in the dendrites.

By Gaute Einevoll
26 August 2026 | 103 min watch
A brown mouse between a red cube and blue cylinder looks curiously at the top of the cylinder, standing on hind legs.

Wouldn’t you like to know? A mouse would

Mice seek information for curiosity’s sake—and their desire for knowledge versus a payout is represented distinctly in the brain, new findings suggest.

By Sarah Thau
26 August 2026 | 5 min read
Covers of The Transmitter's summer book picks.

Five new neuroscience books, and other notable titles from 2026

The Transmitter’s summer reading list includes an autopsy of the Human Brain Project, an overview of the neuroscience of motherhood and a memoir from a pioneer in Huntington’s disease research.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
25 August 2026 | 7 min read