Academicians
WAAC Academicians are world-leading experts who have made foundational contributions to the theory and practice of artificial consciousness.
Morten Peter Meldal
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2022)
Field of Research
Copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (click chemistry)
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2008)
Field of Research
Discovery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Takaaki Kajita
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Physics (2015)
Field of Research
Atmospheric neutrino oscillations
H. Robert Horvitz
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2002)
Field of Research
Programmed cell death in C. elegans; neural circuits
James J. Heckman
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2000)
Field of Research
Economics; behavioral modeling and consciousness
May-Britt Moser
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(2014)
Field of Research
Discovery of grid cells and spatial navigation
Harvey J. Alter
WAAC Academician; Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine; Virologist and Medical Researcher / National Institutes of Health
Field of Research
Hepatitis C virus discovery; Transfusion medicine; Viral hepatitis diagnostics; Blood safety; Global public-health security.
John J. Hopfield
WAAC Academician, Nobel Prize in Physics (2024) / Princeton University
Field of Research
Artificial neural networks; Hopfield network; associative memory; complex systems; physics-inspired machine learning.
Ronald L. Rivest
WAAC Academician, ACM A.M. Turing Award (2002)
Field of Research
RSA public-key cryptosystem
Laurent Itti
WAAC Academician, IEEE Fellow (2017)
Field of Research
Computational models of visual salience and attention
Li-Huei Tsai
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2018)
Field of Research
Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms; gamma-band stimulation
Lucia Regolin
WAAC Academician, Italian national research funding
Field of Research
Animal cognition and consciousness; innate representations
Bruno van Swinderen
WAAC Academician, Australian Research Council funding
Field of Research
Drosophila consciousness and sleep; cross-species consciousness
Barbara Tversky
WAAC Academician, Association for Psychological Science (APS) Fellow
Field of Research
Cognitive psychology; spatial thinking and consciousness
Adam Zeman
WAAC Academician, British Academy-related honors and book awards
Field of Research
Aphantasia and mental imagery; consciousness and autobiographical memory
Andrew Adamatzky
WAAC Academician, British Computer Society (BCS) Fellow
Field of Research
Unconventional computing and self-organization; cues to artificial consciousness
Adam Gazzaley
WAAC Academician, U.S. National Institutes of Health funding
Field of Research
Attention and aging; consciousness and cognitive control
Christoph Gerber
WAAC Academician, 2016 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience
Field of Research
Atomic force microscopy for biomolecular interactions
Barbara J. Sahakian
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the British Academy
Field of Research
Cognitive enhancement and ethics; consciousness and decision-making
Arnaud Delorme
WAAC Academician, CNRS awards
Field of Research
EEG and meditation; oscillations of consciousness
Angela D. Friederici
WAAC Academician, Member of the German Academy of Sciences (2007)
Field of Research
Neural basis of language processing
Elizabeth F. Loftus
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1994)
Field of Research
Malleability of human memory; eyewitness testimony
Douglas Medin
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Cognitive psychology; culture and consciousness
Ellen J. Langer
WAAC Academician, Association for Psychological Science (APS) Fellow
Field of Research
Psychology; mindfulness and consciousness
Diana Reiss
WAAC Academician, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow
Field of Research
Dolphins and mirror self-recognition; animal consciousness
Dov Sagi
WAAC Academician, Honors from the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Field of Research
Visual visibility and learning; thresholds of consciousness
Ehud Ahissar
WAAC Academician, Head of Israel Science Foundation Center of Excellence
Field of Research
Touch and active sensing; sensorimotor loops in consciousness
Friedemann Pulvermüller
WAAC Academician, Member of the German Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Language and brain representations; consciousness and meaning
Gualtiero Piccinini
WAAC Academician, Honors from philosophy and computing societies
Field of Research
Mechanistic and computational theories of consciousness
Greg DeAngelis
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Depth perception and stereopsis; conscious perception
Erkki Oja
WAAC Academician, IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award (2015)
Field of Research
Independent component analysis (ICA) and Hebbian learning
Giacomo Indiveri
WAAC Academician, Associate Fellow of Collegium Helveticum (Switzerland)
Field of Research
Neuromorphic computing; cues to artificial consciousness
Ezequiel Morsella
WAAC Academician, Psychology society awards
Field of Research
Passive frame theory; consciousness and action
Étienne Koechlin
WAAC Academician, Member of the French Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Prefrontal cortex and hierarchical control; conscious planning
Cathy J. Price
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Field of Research
Language networks and reading; conscious comprehension
Geraint Rees
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2010)
Field of Research
Brain networks and computation
Seeram Ramakrishna
WAAC Academician, International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology, China Government Friendship Award (2024)
Field of Research
Electrospun nanofibers; sustainable & circular materials; Materials–Devices–Systems roadmap; embodied intelligent systems
Fred H. Gage
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1999)
Field of Research
Adult neurogenesis and neural plasticity
Giacomo Rizzolatti
WAAC Academician, Member of multiple national academies
Field of Research
Mirror neurons; self–other representation and consciousness
Jean Decety
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Field of Research
Empathy and self–other representation; consciousness and sociality
David Gamez
WAAC Academician, UK Research Council funding
Field of Research
Machine consciousness; measures and evaluation of consciousness
Jean-Pierre Changeux
WAAC Academician, Member of the French Academy of Sciences (1977)
Field of Research
Allosteric receptor theory; neural basis of cognition
Julia B. Hirschberg
WAAC Academician, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Fellow
Field of Research
Speech processing; language–consciousness interaction
Andreas Bartels
WAAC Academician, German Research Foundation (DFG) funding
Field of Research
Vision and consciousness; feedback and context
Kenneth Williford
WAAC Academician, Philosophy society honors
Field of Research
Phenomenology and time; philosophy of consciousness
Luigi De Gennaro
WAAC Academician, Italian National Research Council funding
Field of Research
Sleep and wakefulness; levels of consciousness
Mara Mather
WAAC Academician, Association for Psychological Science (APS) Fellow
Field of Research
Attention and emotion; aging and consciousness
Gerwin Schalk
WAAC Academician, Fellow
Field of Research
Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) and communication; disorders of consciousness
Michael N. Shadlen
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Neural mechanisms of decision-making and consciousness
Michael X. Cohen
WAAC Academician, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) funding
Field of Research
Neural oscillations and information integration; metrics of consciousness
Ned Block
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Philosophy; phenomenal vs. access consciousness
Michael Graziano
WAAC Academician, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Attention Schema Theory as a Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness.
Philip H. S. Torr
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the Royal Society (2023)
Field of Research
Deep learning for scene understanding and recognition
Peter Bentley
WAAC Academician, Computer society and popular science awards
Field of Research
Evolution and self-organization; cues to artificial consciousness
Roi Cohen Kadosh
WAAC Academician, British Academy research fellowship honors
Field of Research
Non-invasive stimulation and cognition; consciousness and numerical processing
Rattan Lal
WAAC Academician, World Food Prize (2020)
Field of Research
Soil carbon sequestration; sustainable agriculture practices
Roi Reichart
WAAC Academician, Israel Science Foundation funding
Field of Research
Language and AI; interpretability and consciousness
Ruzena Bajcsy
WAAC Academician, U.S. National Academy of Engineering (1998)
Field of Research
Computer vision
Risto J. Ilmoniemi
WAAC Academician, Finnish Academy (Academician)
Field of Research
Neurotechnology; consciousness and cortical excitability
Stephen P. Boyd
WAAC Academician, U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2017)
Field of Research
Convex optimization and control engineering
Ron Chrisley
WAAC Academician, Fulbright Scholar
Field of Research
Machine Consciousness and Theories of Representation
Maiken Nedergaard
WAAC Academician, Member Academia Europaea, etc
Field of Research
Glymphatic system; sleep- and consciousness-driven clearance
Włodzisław Duch
WAAC Academician, President of ENNS, etc
Field of Research
Cognitive architectures and consciousness, Artificial life
Minoru Asada
WAAC Academician, IEEE Fellow, etc
Field of Research
Cognitive Developmental Robotics
Nicola S. Clayton
WAAC Academician, Fellow of the Royal Society, etc
Field of Research
Corvid Cognition and Future Planning; Consciousness Indicators
Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos
WAAC Academician, etc
Field of Research
Motor Coding and Conscious Communication
Nilli Lavie
WAAC Academician,FBA, etc
Field of Research
Load Theory; the relationship between attention and consciousness.
Timothy F. Brady
WAAC Academician, etc
Field of Research
Visual Working Memory and Consciousness.
Shuo-Yen Robert Li
WAAC Academician, IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, etc
Field of Research
Network coding, Switching theory & switching system.
Yixin Zhong
WAAC Academician, AETDEW Academician，NYAS Member, etc
Field of Research
Communication Theory; Information Theory; Information Science; AI.
Axel Cleeremans
WAAC Academician, Academician of the Royal Academy of Belgium, etc
Field of Research
Implicit Learning and Consciousness; Reportability and Metacognition.
Antonio Chella
WAAC Honorary Academician, Research Associate (ICAR-CNR), etc
Field of Research
Cognitive Robotics; Machine Consciousness; Cognitive Architectures.
Jingnan Liu
WAAC Honorary Academician; Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Professor at Wuhan University / Wuhan University / Chinese Academy of Engineering
Field of Research
Geodetic reference frames; BeiDou/GNSS positioning; Spatiotemporal intelligence; Satellite navigation; High-precision positioning; Geospatial software; Major engineering applications.
Yucong Duan
WAAC Honorary Academician, NAAI MEMBER，EAI Fellow, etc
Field of Research
DIKWP; Artificial Consciousness; Semantic Mathematics.
Susan Greenfield
WAAC Academician; Founder & CEO (Neuro-Bio Ltd). / University of Oxford; Neuro-Bio Ltd
Field of Research
Brain mechanisms; Consciousness; Effects of digital technology on the brain and cognition.
Yuval Noah Harari
WAAC Academician; Professor of History; Distinguished Research Fellow / The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Cambridge (CSER)
Field of Research
World History; Medieval History; Military History; Big-history perspectives on technology-era civilizational choices.
Christof Koch
WAAC Academician; Meritorious Investigator; Neuroscientist and Computational Neuroscientist / Allen Institute for Brain Science
Field of Research
Neuroscience of consciousness; Visual perception and attention; Computational/theoretical neuroscience.
Thorsten Jelinek
WAAC Academician; Digital Governance and International Policy Expert; Fellow of the Centre for Digital Governance / Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance
Field of Research
Digital sovereignty; Privacy and data governance; Cybersecurity regulation; AI governance; International digital policy.
Jürgen Schmidhuber
WAAC Academician; Professor of Computer Science; Pioneer in Deep Learning and Generative AI / King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Field of Research
Deep learning; Long Short-Term Memory networks; Sequence learning; Generative AI; Autonomous and self-improving intelligent systems.
Andrey Yu. Shcherbakov
WAAC Corresponding Academician; Professor; Information Security and Digital-Economy Security Scholar / Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
Field of Research
Information security; Applied cryptography; Risk governance; Trusted digital infrastructure; Digital finance and data security.
Eric Schwitzgebel
WAAC Academician; Professor of Philosophy; Philosophy of Mind and AI Ethics Scholar / University of California, Riverside
Field of Research
Consciousness Uncertainty and the Moral Status of AI Systems
Nao Tsuchiya
WAAC Academician; Professor of Psychology; Consciousness Neuroscience and Integrated Information Theory Scholar / Monash University
Field of Research
Consciousness neuroscience; Neural correlates of consciousness; Integrated Information Theory; Qualia structure; Category-theoretic approaches to consciousness; Artificial consciousness foundations.
Rufin VanRullen
WAAC Academician; CNRS Research Director; Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired AI Scholar / Centre de Recherche Cerveau & Cognition (CerCo), CNRS, University of Toulouse
Field of Research
Cognitive neuroscience; Visual perception; Neural oscillations; Deep learning; Brain-inspired artificial intelligence; Global Workspace Theory; Global Latent Workspace; Artificial consciousness computational models.
Stephen L. Macknik
WAAC Academician; Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology; Visual Neuroscience and Visual Consciousness Scholar / SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University / SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Field of Research
Visual neuroscience; Visual consciousness; Attention mechanisms; Visual illusions; Microsaccades; Neural coding; Perceptual stability; Eye-movement biomarkers; Neuromagic; Clinical eye-movement neuroscience.
Susana Martinez-Conde
WAAC Academician; Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology; Visual Neuroscience and Oculomotor Neuroscience Scholar / SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University / SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Field of Research
Visual neuroscience; Oculomotor neuroscience; Cognitive neuroscience; Visual consciousness; Visual illusions; Microsaccades; Attention and consciousness; Art perception; Neuromagic; Eye-movement biomarkers; Clinical eye-movement neuroscience; Science communication.
Megan Peters
WAAC Academician; Associate Professor of Cognitive Sciences; Consciousness Science and Metacognition Scholar / University of California, Irvine
Field of Research
Consciousness science; Metacognition; Subjective experience; Perceptual uncertainty; Computational cognitive neuroscience; Higher-order representation; AI consciousness assessment; Human-AI metacognition comparison; Open neuroscience education.
Amy Kind
WAAC Academician; Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy; Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies; Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness Scholar / Claremont McKenna College
Field of Research
Philosophy of imagination; Consciousness studies; Philosophy of mind; Personal identity; Introspection; Self-knowledge; Artificial consciousness.
Rubén Moreno-Bote
WAAC Academician; Serra Húnter Professor; Head of the Theoretical and Cognitive Neuroscience Group; Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience Scholar / Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Field of Research
Computational neuroscience; Cognitive neuroscience; Neural population coding; Decision-making; Confidence judgment; Intrinsic motivation; Brain-inspired intelligence; Artificial consciousness.
Gary E. Schwartz
WAAC Academician; Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health / Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health
Field of Research
Consciousness studies; Psychophysiology; Mind-body medicine; Self-regulation; Survival hypothesis; Energy healing; Health psychology; Artificial consciousness.
Marilyn Schlitz
WAAC Academician; Professor of Transpersonal Psychology; Former President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences / Sofia University / Institute of Noetic Sciences
Field of Research
Consciousness studies; Transpersonal psychology; Human transformation; Mind-body healing; Noetic sciences; Consciousness of death; Worldview transformation; Artificial consciousness.
Stanley Krippner
WAAC Academician; Former Alan Watts Professor of Psychology; Affiliated Distinguished Faculty / Saybrook University / California Institute of Integral Studies
Field of Research
Consciousness studies; Dream research; Transpersonal psychology; Hypnosis; Altered states of consciousness; Personal mythology; Shamanic studies; Anomalous experience; Artificial consciousness.
Nikos K. Logothetis
WAAC Academician; Director / Co-Director and Senior Investigator; Emeritus Director / International Center for Primate Brain Research / Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Field of Research
Systems neuroscience; Primate brain research; Neuroimaging; Electrophysiology; Visual perception; Object recognition; Neurovascular coupling; Learning and memory; Neural mechanisms of consciousness; Brain-inspired intelligence; Artificial consciousness.
Trevor W. Robbins
WAAC Academician; Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Member of the Royal Society; Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences / University of Cambridge
Field of Research
Cognitive neuroscience; Behavioural neuroscience; Neuropsychopharmacology; Prefrontal cortex function; Reward and motivational mechanisms; Attention and executive control; Impulsive and compulsive behaviour; Neuropsychiatric disorders; Computerized neuropsychological assessment; Artificial consciousness.
Bruno Siciliano
WAAC Academician; Professor of Control and Robotics; Director of PRISMA Lab; Chair of the ICAROS Scientific Committee; Honorary Professor and Rudolf Kálmán Chair / University of Naples Federico II / Óbuda University
Field of Research
Robot control; Robotic manipulation; Human–robot collaboration; Service robotics; Medical and surgical robotics; Industrial robotics; Aerial robotics; Embodied intelligence; Autonomous systems; Robotics education; Artificial consciousness.
Christoph Lütge
WAAC Academician; Peter Löscher Chair of Business Ethics and Global Governance; Director of the TUM Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence; Distinguished Visiting Professor / Technical University of Munich / University of Tokyo
Field of Research
Artificial intelligence ethics; Business ethics; Digital technology ethics; Robotics and AI ethics; Autonomous driving ethics; Corporate social responsibility; Technology risk governance; International AI governance; Ethical institutional design; Artificial consciousness.
Botond Roska
WAAC Academician; Director of Science; Professor / Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel / University of Basel
Field of Research
Visual neuroscience; Retinal neural circuits; Central visual pathways; Visual information processing; Cell-type-specific neural mechanisms; Retinal diseases; Gene therapy; Optogenetic vision restoration; Neural repair; Artificial consciousness.
Witold Pedrycz
WAAC Academician; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Canada Research Chair in Computational Intelligence; Scholar at the Systems Research Institute / University of Alberta / Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences
Field of Research
Computational intelligence; Granular computing; Fuzzy systems; Information granules; Neuro-fuzzy systems; Data-driven modeling; Knowledge discovery; Pattern recognition; Human-centric intelligent systems; Intelligent decision support; Artificial consciousness.
Arogyaswami J. Paulraj
WAAC Academician; Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering; Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering; Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering / Stanford University
Field of Research
Wireless communications; MIMO technology; Space-time signal processing; Intelligent communication systems; Broadband wireless networks; 4G/5G technologies; High-speed Wi-Fi; Communication engineering; Global information infrastructure; Artificial consciousness.
Michael Posner
WAAC Academician; Professor Emeritus of Psychology; Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; Recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science / University of Oregon
Field of Research
Attention networks; Cognitive neuroscience; Cognitive control; Attentional regulation; Developmental cognitive neuroscience; Self-regulation; Brain network mechanisms; Attention and consciousness; Artificial consciousness.
Chunhui Wang
WAAC Academician; Dual-appointed Professor and Doctoral Supervisor; Chief Expert of the Research Base for International Cyberspace Governance / Zhejiang University / Research Base for Cyberspace Governance and Digital Economy Rule of Law in the Yangtze River Delta
Field of Research
Cyberspace governance; Digital economy strategy and law; Data factor systems; Data security governance; Personal information protection; Public data resources; Artificial intelligence governance; Digital ethics; International cyberspace rules; Artificial consciousness.
Global Academic Ecosystem
Academicians of the World Academy for Artificial Consciousness hail from institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, the French Academy of Sciences, and other leading global research centers.