Professor Andrew Welchman PhD

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
• PhD, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• BSc in Psychology, University of Durham

Andrew was a BBSRC David Phillips Fellow and Wellcome SRF in Birmingham, before becoming Professor of Neural Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, advancing the integration of neuroscience and AI to understand human behaviour.

He joined the Wellcome Trust in 2017 to lead Neuroscience, directing a £500 million portfolio and establishing Mental Health as a major strategic priority. He championed ambitious, cross-disciplinary research, neurotechnology, and impact-driven approaches.

In 2021, he became Executive Vice President at ieso, translating cutting-edge science into scalable mental healthcare and advancing the responsible use of AI in clinical practice. He supported services reaching around half the NHS and pioneered the safe deployment of Generative AI within a registered medical device.

He founded Prodromic, a Cambridge/Birmingham spin-out, in 2024 to deliver multimodal AI for early precise prediction in dementia so that clinical trials can be faster, patients have a better idea of what is to come, and clinicians can pick the most appropriate treatments.

In 2026, Andrew returned to the University of Birmingham as Head of School and Professor of Neuroinnovation, focused on building a next-generation research environment that bridges disciplines, sectors and discovery to deliver real-world impact.

Andrew’s work is globally recognised for advancing understanding of the brain mechanisms underpinning multisensory perception and behaviour. He integrates behavioural science, computational modelling, and advanced neuroimaging (including 7T fMRI, MR Spectroscopy, TMS, tDCS and EEG) to study the human mind. He pioneered theory‑driven brain imaging and was among the first to demonstrate how modern AI (convolutional neural networks) can deepen insight into brain function and inspire scientists to generate new, testable hypotheses.

His recent work focuses on the safe and effective use of AI to improve wellbeing, enhance medical care, and accelerate treatment discovery, combining technical advances with patient-centred design, clinical validation and health economics.

More broadly, he explores how brain-inspired innovation and new economic models can improve brain health and skills at population scale in the AI age.