Dr. Simon E. Fisher
Biography | Publications | Talks | Complete CV
Dr. Simon E. Fisher is a Royal Society Research Fellow and Reader in Molecular Neuroscience at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG), University of Oxford, UK, where he pioneers investigations into molecular mechanisms underlying speech and language. Simon obtained his Natural Sciences degree at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, UK, specialising in Genetics. From 1991-1995, he carried out doctoral research at the Genetics Unit of the Biochemistry Department, Oxford University, and isolated a gene causing an inherited kidney-stone disorder. From 1996-2002, Simon was a senior post-doctoral scientist in Prof. Anthony Monaco's group at the WTCHG, where he led research teams searching for genomic variants that are implicated in childhood learning disabilities. During this time he identified FOXP2, the first case of a gene mutated in speech and language impairment. In 2002, Simon became head of his own laboratory, which uses state-of-the-art methods to uncover how language-related genes influence the brain at multiple levels. Simon is also the Isobel Laing Fellow in Biomedical Sciences at Oriel College, where he teaches Biochemistry and Medical Genetics.
Simon is author of over 60 journal articles, including peer-reviewed research in Nature, Nature Genetics, New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, Current Biology and American Journal of Human Genetics, and review articles in Nature Reviews Genetics, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Annual Review of Neuroscience, Trends in Genetics and Trends in Cognitive Sciences. He is frequently invited to talk at leading international conferences across a diverse range of fields, and has also spoken to school, student and public audiences on a number of occasions. His research benefits from a strong interdisciplinary remit, integrating data from genetics and genomics, psychology, neuroscience, developmental biology and evolutionary anthropology. In 2008, Simon was awarded the Francis Crick Prize Lecture by the Royal Society [view a webcast here], and in 2009 he received the first ever Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize, an international award established by the Hertie Foundation. In 2009, Simon was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.