Anya Hurlbert

Anya Hurlbert is Professor of Visual Neuroscience and Dean of Advancement at Newcastle University. She co-founded Newcastle’s Institute of Neuroscience in 2003, serving as its co-Director until 2014, and now steers its Centre for Transformative Neuroscience. She was a Marshall Scholar and holds degrees in physics, physiology, brain and cognitive science, and medicine from Princeton, Cambridge, MIT and Harvard, respectively.

Anya’s research interests are focussed on the understanding of human vision, especially colour perception and its role in cognition and behaviour; her work includes applications in imaging, lighting, visual art, and human health. She received the Newton Medal (the Colour Group GB; 2022) and has delivered many named and keynote lectures, including the Edridge-Green Lecture (the Royal College of Ophthalmologists) and the Richard Gregory Memorial Lecture (Bristol Vision Institute).

Anya speaks and writes widely on colour vision and art, contributes to television and radio programmes, and has devised several science-based art exhibitions, including an interactive installation at the National Gallery, London. In addition to several international advisory boards, Anya serves on the Scientific Consultative Group of the National Gallery, where she was recently Scientific Trustee, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vision and Current Biology, the Board of Directors of the Vision Sciences Society, and the Rank Prize Funds Optoelectronics Committee.