David Willshaw

David Willshaw is a computational neurobiologist whose research ranges from associative memory to self-organizing neural maps. He begins his research career at Edinburgh's School of Artificial Intelligence in 1970, completes a PhD on distributed associative memory in 1971, and coauthors a neural-mapping paper with Christoph von der Malsburg. His career includes Medical Research Council posts, leadership of Edinburgh's Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, and the 1992 IEEE Neural Networks Council Pioneer medal. His later work includes a 2015 framework for comparing retinotopic-map models and a computational-neuroscience textbook published in 2023. As of October 2026, he is an Emeritus Professor of Computational Neurobiology and honorary staff member in the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics.

Now at: University of Edinburgh
Works: 189
Citations: 7,520
h-index: 43
Badges: Loyal
Pioneer

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

1970–1973

Research Fellow and PhD student

He begins as a Research Fellow in the Theoretical Psychology Unit at Edinburgh's School of Artificial Intelligence in 1970. He completes a PhD thesis titled "Models of Distributed Associative Memory" in 1971 and moves to the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen in 1973.
1976–1988

Self-organizing neural connections

He and Christoph von der Malsburg publish a paper on self-organizing neural connections in 1976. He joins the MRC as a Training Fellow at the National Institute for Medical Research in 1977, becomes a staff member in 1980, joins MRC Scientific Staff at Edinburgh's Department of Zoology in 1984, and moves to its Centre for Cognitive Science in 1988.
1992

An IEEE neural networks medal

He receives the IEEE Neural Networks Council Pioneer medal in 1992 for contributions to neural-network research.
1996–2006

Head of neural computation

Edinburgh promotes him to MRC Professor equivalent in 1996. He heads the Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation from 1998 to 2004 and receives a Personal Chair in Computational Neurobiology in 2006.
2015

Comparing retinotopic models

With Johannes Hjorth, David Sterratt, Catherine Cutts, and Stephen Eglen, he publishes an open computational framework in 2015 to compare models of retinotopic map formation with experimental data.
2023

A computational neuroscience textbook

He coauthors the second edition of Principles of Computational Modelling in Neuroscience, published in 2023. The book teaches computational techniques for modelling neurons and neural circuitry.
As of October 2026

Emeritus professor at Edinburgh

He is an Emeritus Professor of Computational Neurobiology in the Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation and honorary staff in the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics.