Professor Andrew King FMedSci FRS

Andrew King is a neuroscientist who works on hearing. He studies how the brain processes sound and integrates this with information provided by our other senses.

He discovered that the mammalian brain contains a spatial map of the auditory world and showed that its development is shaped by sensory experience. His work has also demonstrated that the adult brain represents sound features in a remarkably flexible way, continually adjusting to variations in the statistical distribution of sounds associated with different acoustic environments as well to longer term changes in input resulting from hearing loss. In addition to furthering our understanding of the neural basis for auditory perception, his research is helping to inform better treatment strategies for the hearing impaired. 

He has held a number of prestigious research fellowships and, in 2006, was appointed to a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship, the most senior of the Wellcome Trust’s personal awards. He is a recipient of the Wellcome Prize Medal in Physiology and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Physiological Society and Merton College.

Professional position

  • Department Of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford

Subject groups

  • Multicellular Organisms

    Animal (especially mammalian) and human physiology and anatomy (non-clinical), Behavioural neuroscience, Cellular neuroscience, Development and control of behaviour

  • Other

    Public engagement

Committees Participated Role
Sectional Committee 8: Multicellular organisms October 2026 - September 2027 Member
Sectional Committee 8: Multicellular organisms October 2024 - September 2026 Chair
Research Grants Committee: Biological Science January 2024 - December 2026 Member
Sectional Committee 10: Health and human sciences November 2019 - October 2022 Member