Ethan Newnham

I am fascinated by the brain's ability to process and integrate vast amounts of sensory input and use this information to guide adaptive behaviour. I also want to understand how neural activity determines the subjective content of our experiences; our conscious perception. In my DPhil, I will use an all-optical approach — simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging and two-photon holographic optogenetics — to record and manipulate neural activity in the mouse visual cortex with single-cell precision.

I received my BSc from the University of Melbourne in 2023, having conducted undergraduate research in the labs of Susie Nilsson (ARMI, CSIRO), Michael Clark (UniMelb), Theo Mantamadiotis (UniMelb), Ron Firestein (Hudson Institute) and Andrew Wise (Bionics Institute) as part of the Amgen Scholars Program. I completed an internship using iPSC-derived neurons at the biological computing startup Cortical Labs, and conducted patch-clamp electrophysiology in acute brain slices in Lucy Palmer's lab at the Florey Institute. I received a Rotary Global Grant Scholarship to undertake the MSc in Neuroscience at Oxford which I graduated from in 2025, receiving the Sherrington Prize for the highest mark.

During my MSc, I conducted research in the Lak Lab with mentorship from Blake Russell, and in Professor Colin Akerman's lab with mentorship from Dr. Sarah Newey and Kai Wang. I was then awarded joint funding by the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and the Ramsay Foundation to pursue my DPhil under the supervision of Professor Armin Lak, with co-supervision from Professor Andrew King.