Jon Driver, British psychologist and neuroscientist, died he was 49.

Jonathon Stevens "Jon" Driver, FMedSci, FBA was a psychologist and neuroscientist died he was 49..

(4 July 1962 – 28 November 2011)

Education

Driver received his BA/MA in Experimental Psychology in 1984 and a D Phil in Experimental Psychology in 1988 from the Queen's College, Oxford.^[1][2]

Career

At the time of his death, Driver was Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London (UCL). From 2009 Driver held a Royal Society Anniversary Research Professorship, which allowed him to concentrate on research. He was formerly Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary research centre that studies mental processes in the human brain. He was a principal investigator at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL.^[3]

Honours

In 2005 Driver was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; in 2006 as a member of Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe; and in 2008 as a Fellow of the British Academy.^[3] Previous awards include the Spearman Medal of the British Psychological Society, the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) Prize, and the EPS Mid-Career Award. He received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award; a Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship; and, at the time of his death, held a Royal Society Research Professorship.

Research

Driver's research focused on perception, selective attention and multisensory integration (interplay between our different senses) in the normal and damaged human brain. He used a combination of psychophysical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging and TMS methods, including most recently a combined brain stimulation and brain imaging approach (concurrent TMS-fMRI). His research had been funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Biology and Biotechnology Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the McDonnell Foundation, and The Stroke Association. Driver authored over 200 scientific publications.^[2]

Personal life

Driver was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire on 4 July 1962.^[1] He was brought up in Hull. He committed suicide in London on 28 November 2011, aged 49.^[4][1] He is survived by his wife and two sons.^[1]

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