Bill Newsome is the Harman Family Professor of Neurobiology and founding director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. His research has focused on the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception and simple forms of decision-making. More recently he has applied dynamical systems approaches to understand encoding and computational strategies at the level of neural populations. He has an active interest in the conceptual foundations of neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science. Newsome is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and co-chaired the NIH Working Group that crafted a national plan for the US BRAIN Initiative.