Dr. Adrian Owen

OBE, PhD, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging in the Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology and Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, former Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging

Dr. Owen’s research combines structural and functional neuroimaging with neuropsychological studies of brain-injured patients and has been published in many of the world’s leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet. Adrian Owen is best known for showing that functional neuroimaging can reveal conscious awareness in some patients who appear to be entirely vegetative and can even allow some of these individuals to communicate their thoughts and wishes to the outside world. These findings have attracted widespread media attention on TV, radio, in print and online and have been the subject of many TV and radio documentaries.

Dr. Owen has played multiple editorial roles, including 8 years as Deputy Editor of The European Journal of Neuroscience. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and a best-selling popular science book ‘Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death. Dr. Owen was recently awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Honors List, 2019, for services to scientific research.