Anil Seth
British neuroscientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anil Kumar Seth (born 11 June 1972) is a British neuroscientist and professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. A proponent of materialist explanations of consciousness,[1] he is currently amongst the most cited scholars on the topics of neuroscience and cognitive science globally.[2]
University of Sussex (MSc, PhD)
Anil Kumar Seth | |
|---|---|
Seth in 2019 | |
| Born | 11 June 1972 Oxford, England |
| Education | King's College, Cambridge (BA) University of Sussex (MSc, PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | University of Sussex |
| Thesis | On the Relations between Behaviour, Mechanism, and Environment: Explorations in Artificial Evolution (2000) |
| Doctoral advisors | Hilary Buxton Phil Husbands |
| Website | www |
Seth holds a BA (promoted to an MA per tradition) in natural science from King's College, Cambridge, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Sussex. Seth has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters, and is the editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness.[3] He is a regular contributor to New Scientist, The Guardian[4] and the BBC,[5] and writes the blog NeuroBanter.[6]
He is related to the Indian novelist and poet Vikram Seth.[citation needed]
Early life and education
Seth was born in Oxford[7] and grew up in Letcombe Regis,[8] a village in rural South Oxfordshire. His father, Bhola Seth, obtained a BSc from Allahabad University in 1945, before migrating from India to the United Kingdom to study engineering at Cardiff. Bhola Seth subsequently obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Sheffield, was a research scientist at the Esso Research Centre in Abingdon, and won the veterans' world doubles title in badminton in 1976. His mother, Ann Delaney, came from Yorkshire.[9]
Seth went to school at King Alfred's Academy in Wantage. He has degrees in Natural Sciences (BA/MA, King's College, Cambridge, 1994), Knowledge-Based Systems (M.Sc., Sussex, 1996) and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (D.Phil./Ph.D., Sussex, 2001). He was a postdoctoral and associate fellow at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California (2001–2006).[citation needed]
Career
Since 2010 Seth has been co-director (with Hugo Critchley) of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science,[10] and editor-in-chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness.[3] He was conference chair of the 16th meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and continuing member 'at large'[11] and is on the steering group and advisory board of the Human Mind Project.[12] He was president of the Psychology Section of the British Science Association in 2017.[13][14]
Publications
Seth has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters, and is the editor-in-chief of the journal, Neuroscience of Consciousness.[3] He is a regular contributor to New Scientist, The Guardian[4] and the BBC,[5] and writes the blog NeuroBanter.[6] He also consulted for the popular science book, Eye Benders, which won the 2014 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize.[15] An introductory essay on consciousness has been published on Aeon – "The Real Problem" – a 2016 Editor's Pick. Seth was included in the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers List that was published by Clarivate Analytics.[16] Seth contributes articles on consciousness and perception to the website EXPeditions.[17] Seth's essay "The Mythology Of Conscious AI" won 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition in the English language category and has been published on Noema.[18]
Books
- Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (Faber & Faber, 2021) [19] – author
- Brain Twisters (Ivy Press, 2015)[20] – consultant
- 30-Second Brain (Ivy Press, 2014)[21] – editor and co-author
- Eye Benders (Ivy Press, 2013)[22] – consultant
- Modelling Natural Action Selection (Cambridge University Press, 2011)[23] – editor and co-author
Popularisation of science
Seth appeared in the 2018 Netflix documentary The Most Unknown[24] on scientific research directed by Ian Cheney.
See also
- User illusion, an understanding of consciousness similar to Seth's
