President: 2022 – 2024

University College London, UK

David Attwell did a first degree in physics, a second degree in physiological sciences and a PhD on the electrophysiology of nerve and muscle cells (with Julian Jack) at the University of Oxford, UK, before spending two years as a postdoc in The University of California, Berkeley, US, studying the retina with Frank Werblin.

On returning to the UK, he moved to the Department of Physiology at University College London, where he has remained ever since. He has worked on a wide range of subjects including the properties of glial cells, glutamate transporters, stroke, the formation of myelin by oligodendrocytes, how neuronal computation is powered, the control of cerebral blood flow and, most recently, Alzheimer’s disease.

He has served on committees of The Physiological Society and chaired the Wellcome Trust’s Neuroscience Panel. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.