John O'Keefe | |
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Born | New York City, U.S. | November 18, 1939
Citizenship | United States United Kingdom |
Alma mater | City College of New York (BA) McGill University (MA, PhD) |
Known for | Discovery of place cells |
Awards | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Neuroscience Psychology |
Institutions | University College London |
Thesis | Response properties of amygdalar units in the freely moving cat (1967) |
Doctoral advisor | Ronald Melzack |
Notable students | Neil Burgess |
Website | Website at UCL |
John O'Keefe FRS FMedSci (born November 18, 1939) is an American-British neuroscientist, psychologist and a professor at University College London.
O'Keefe discovered place cells in the hippocampus, and that they show a specific kind of temporal coding in the form of theta phase precession. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014, together with May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser; he has received several other awards.