National Academy of Sciences welcomes Adrienne Fairhall

Adrienne Fairhall, professor of neurobiology and biophysics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her achievements in research. Fairhall is also a UW adjunct professor of applied mathematics and physics.  

Fairhall is a noted leader in computational neurosciences. Her group at UW Medicine develops theoretical approaches to understand how nervous systems process information. She collaborates with experimental labs across the UW, examining information-processing in systems that range from single neurons — nerve cells that receive and conduct signals — to neural networks.  

She has applied her expertise in dynamic neural computation, neural coding and related fields to multidisciplinary studies with her research colleagues. She is a member of scientific teams that explore how the nervous systems of various creatures respond to environmental stimuli and direct behavior.  

These studies have included how mosquitoes use heat and chemical cues to forage, and how neural inputs drive muscle activation and biomechanics in hydra — tiny, tentacled invertebrates that live in water. 

Fairhall grew up in Australia. She attended the National Australian University in Canberra, where she earned her degree in theoretical physics. She then went on to complete her master’s and Ph.D. in physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University before joining the UW School of Medicine faculty in 2004.   

“My switch from physics into neuroscience for my postdoc was the result of doing my thesis work in a very interdisciplinary environment, and it’s been great to have that kind of environment, and to help foster it, here at UW,” Fairhall said. 

She has worked with labs that study birdsong to test theories about lifelong learning and maintaining skills. She has also studied primates as they interact with virtual reality, navigating a virtual world to claim rewards or decide to explore what’s ahead.  

Among Fairhall’s honors and awards are a Sloan Fellowship, a Burroughs Wellcome “Careers at the Scientific Interface” Fellowship, and a McKnight Scholar Award. She was named an Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator. In 2022, she was Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. 

Fairhall is a dedicated educator who co-founded the Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain at the UW Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories in collaboration with the Allen Institute; co-directed the Methods in Computation Neuroscience course at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts; and co-created an online, self-paced course to introduce key concepts in her field to thousands of learners.   

Also elected from the UW was David W. Hertzog, the Arthur B. McDonald Professor of Physics and director of the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. Hertzog and Fairhall are among 120 new members from across the country who will participate in a signing-in ceremony next year at the academy’s annual meeting.

There are now 33 active members of the National Academy of Sciences affiliated with the UW School of Medicine. In its history, the UW lists 99 faculty elected to the academy. 

The National Academy of Sciences is a private nonprofit institution established in 1863. Along with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, it provides science, engineering and health-policy advice to the federal government and other organizations. 

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