• 2022 - present: Professor, University of Edinburgh
• 2014 - 2021: Sir Henry Dale fellow, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society
• 2013 - 2022: Chancellor’s fellow, University of Edinburgh
• 2007 - 2012: Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Neuroscience, Technical University Munich, Germany

• Awards

  2024: Leading researcher of the year: cognition and neurodevelopment, Women in Neuroscience UK.

  2019: EMBO Young Investigator (YIP) award

  2017: The Physiological Society’s 2017 R Jean Banister Prize Lecture

  2013: Schilling Research Award of the German Neuroscience Society 2013

  2011: Bernard Katz Lecture Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

  2006: Research prize from the French national association for the blind and visually-disabled people (FAF)

Nathalie Rochefort is a Professor of Visual Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, studying the neural basis of visual perception. As an undergraduate, she studied Biology and Epistemology in Paris. She then obtained a European PhD in Neuroscience from the University Paris-VI and the Ruhr-Universität-Bochum and did her post-doctoral training at the Technical University in Munich. Her work during her PhD and post-doctoral training has contributed to a new understanding of how neurons acquire their functional properties in the visual cortex. This work also led to the development of in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, a powerful technique now widely used by neuroscientists. Her research group focuses on how brain neuronal circuits process visual information, and how experience durably modifies the activity of these circuits in health and disease. She has won various honours and grants including the prestigious Bernard Katz Lecture Award, the Schilling Research Award (German Neuroscience Society), the Sir Henry Dale fellowship (Wellcome Trust and Royal Society), the EMBO Young Investigator award and the ERC Consolidator grant.

• 2002-2007, Ph.D. in Neuroscience, European PhD between University Paris 6 (ED3C) and Ruhr-Universität (International Graduate School of Neuroscience). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. U.T. Eysel, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany and Dr. C. Milleret, Laboratory of Physiologie de la Perception et de l’Action, UMR7152, CNRS/Collège-de-France, Paris, France. Passed dissertation with “Summa cum Laude”.

• 1997-01, Master in Biology and Biochemistry, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, “with honours”. Master in Epistemology and History of Sciences, University Paris 7, “with high honours”.

• 1995-97, Undergraduate degree, University Paris 7, “with high honours”.

https://rochefortlab.co.uk/

https://www.ed.ac.uk/discovery-brain-sciences/our-staff/research-groups/nathalie-rochefort

Our aim is to reveal how neuronal networks integrate visual information to guide perceptions and actions

Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Edinburgh Neuroscience,

Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB)

Team members

• Dr Danai Katsanevaki (Postdoctoral fellow)
• Dr Alfredo Llorca Molina (Postdoctoral fellow, Wellcome Trust fellow)
• Dr Theoklitos Amvrosiadis, (Postdoctoral fellow)
• Arthur Zhang (PhD student; (MRC Precision medicine DTP)
• Patricia Maeso Hernandez (Research assistant)
• Andrew Lau (SIDB PhD)
• Benjamin Carre (MRC Precision medicine DTP)

Lab alumni

• Dr Zahid Padamsey (Postdoctoral fellow; Royal Society commission 1851; BBSRC); now: PI, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge
• Dr Tom Flossmann (Walter Benjamin post-doctoral fellow; DFG, Germany); now: senior researcher, Institut für Physiologie I, Universitätsklinikum Jena
• Dr Zihao Chen  (Postdoctoral fellow, Shenzhen, China)
• Dr Nina Kudryashova (Postdoctoral fellow); now: PI, Chancellor’s fellow, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh
• Janelle Pakan (Postdoctoral fellow; now Group Leader, Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS), Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Germany)
• Sander Keemink (Post-doctoral fellow; now Post-doctoral Marie Curie fellow Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Portugal)
• Evelyn Dylda (PhD student; now Post-doctoral fellow at University of Rochester Medical Center, NY, USA)
• Lukas Fischer (Postdoctoral fellow, now post-doctoral associate at MIT, USA)
• Stephen Currie (Postdoctoral fellow; now post-doctoral University of Edinburgh)
• Christopher Coutts (Post-doctoral fellow; now Resident Physician, Stereotactic Neurosurgery, University Hospital Magdeburg, Germany)
• Scott Lowe (PhD student; now Post-doctoral fellow Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, and Vector Institute, Toronto, Canada)
• Lotte Herstel (Master student; now PhD student in Utrecht University, Netherlands)

Brain functions such as sensations and thoughts depend on the coordinated activity of neuronal networks. The aim of my research group is to reveal how neuronal networks integrate sensory information in order to create a representation of the outside world that is relevant for the animal’s behaviour. We are using the mouse primary visual cortex as a model system of cortical integration of sensory and non-sensory information.

Using such information, we apply the same approach to study how network activity is disrupted in the brain of mouse models for autistic spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities.

Year 3

Neuroscience 3: Vision

Year 4:

Physiology 4

Honours elective:

Neural circuits for learning and memory

Sensory Physiology and Dysfunction

Synaptic Function and Plasticity in Health and Disease

Postgraduate (MsC):

MSc by Research Integrative Neuroscience

Appointments

External committees

2024-               Wellcome Trust, Chair of the Brain and Behavioural Sciences committee, Early-Career Awards.

2024-25           Grant panel, vice-president, French national research agency (ANR)

2023-               Member of the Data working group of ALBA Network (a global diverse network of neuroscientists who are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion)

2023-               Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Circuit Photonics, Marseille, France.

2021-24           NIH Scientific Steering Group as part of the BRAIN Initiative

2020-24           International Grant Panel: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Division Biology and Medicine. Member of focus group to reflect on and change policies for National Grant Schemes in order to increase the proportion of under-represented groups in funded projects. This resulted in revised policies and new practice for monitoring changes.

2018-21           Member of the Scientific Publications committee of the Society For Neuroscience, USA (Journal of Neuroscience and eNeuro), (3-4 meetings/year).

2019-21           International Grant Panel: German Research Foundation, DFG Priority Programme

2018                International evaluation committee: High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES), France.

Internal, University of Edinburgh

2021-               Member of the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) Executive and Strategic board (with Prof. Peter Kind and Prof. Adrian Bird), Neuronal circuits expert.

2021                Facilitator to support the University Leadership and Management Programmes, 4 sessions/year.

2018-               Co-convenor of the Biomedical Sciences Opportunity Committee, 3-4 meetings/year; promoting Equality and Diversity within Biomedical Sciences.

2015-               Organization of Women in Science round table discussions (3-4 sessions/year)

2017-20           Recruitment panels for Graduate programs (reviews and interviews): Simons Initiative for Developing Brain (SIDB), Biomedical Sciences, Dementia Research Institute graduate program

2015-17           Member of the Centre for Integrative Physiology executive committee. Strategic decisions regarding funding, management and policies.

2016-17           Member of the writing group for the application to the Athena Swan Award, Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

Our aim is to reveal how neuronal networks integrate visual information to guide perceptions and actions.