Walter Freeman
Also known as Walter J. Freeman, Walter Jackson Freeman III
Walter Freeman was a UC Berkeley neuroscientist whose mathematical models of brain activity helped establish computational neuroscience. He studied physics at MIT, English and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and medicine at Yale before joining Berkeley's physiology faculty in 1959. His research into olfactory oscillations and neural populations included the 1975 book Mass Action in the Nervous System; he received the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award in 1992 and served as president of the International Neural Network Society in 1994. Freeman wrote Societies of Brains, How Brains Make Up Their Minds, and Imaging Brain Function with EEG, and died in 2016 as a professor emeritus at Berkeley.
Timeline
-
1927–1954
Education and medical degree
Born in 1927 in Washington, D.C., he studies physics at MIT, English and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and electronics in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He enters Yale Medical School without an undergraduate degree and graduates cum laude in 1954.
-
1959
Joining Berkeley physiology
He joins UC Berkeley in 1959 as an assistant professor of physiology in the College of Letters & Science Department of Physiology-Anatomy.
-
1964
Modeling olfactory oscillations
In 1964, he models oscillatory evoked potentials in the olfactory system as interactions between excitatory and inhibitory neural populations. His work makes him one of the founders of computational neuroscience.
-
1967–1972
Chairing a Berkeley department
He chairs Berkeley's Department of Anatomy and Physiology from 1967 to 1972.
-
1975
Mass Action in the Nervous System
In 1975, he publishes Mass Action in the Nervous System, a book that uses mathematics to describe brain dynamics. It frames perception through the collective behavior of large neural populations.
-
1992–1994
IEEE award and society presidency
He receives the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award in 1992. He serves as president of the International Neural Network Society in 1994.
-
1995–2013
Books on brain dynamics
In 1995, he publishes Societies of Brains, bringing ideas about brain dynamics and chaos to lay readers. He publishes How Brains Make Up Their Minds in 2001. With Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, he publishes Imaging Brain Function with EEG in 2013.
-
2016
Professor emeritus of neurobiology
An emeritus professor of neurobiology at UC Berkeley, he dies in 2016.
Career
- 2023–2025Syracuse University
- 2009–2011University of Arizona
- 1975–1977University of Delaware
- 1959–2016University of California, BerkeleyAssistant Professor of Physiology, Chair
- 1950–2015George Washington University
Education
Colleagues
John OhalaUniversity of California, Berkeley, 1971–2017
Hubert DreyfusUniversity of California, Berkeley, 1968–2016
Manuel BlumUniversity of California, Berkeley, 1968–1999- Amitai EtzioniGeorge Washington University, 2012–2015
- Pramod VarshneySyracuse University, 2023–2025
- Michael HammondUniversity of Arizona, 2009–2011
Sources and credits
Photo: We have no published photo of Walter Freeman yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.