Sir Victor Horsley Lecture 2026 - Dr Edward Chang

UCL Event page: Sir Victor Horsley Lecture 2026 : Dr Edward Chang | UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology - UCL – University College London

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About Dr Edward Chang

Edward Chang is the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Chang’s clinical expertise is surgical therapies for epilepsy, pain, and brain tumors. He specializes in advanced neurophysiologic brain mapping methods, including awake speech and motor mapping, to safely perform neurosurgical procedures in eloquent areas of the brain. His research focuses on the discovery of cortical mechanisms of high-order neurological function in humans.

Dr. Chang’s laboratory has demonstrated the detailed functional organization of the human speech cortex and has translated those discoveries towards the development of a speech neuroprosthetic device to restore communication for people living with paralysis. Dr. Chang is recipient of the 2015 Blavatnik National Laureate in Life Sciences, The Winn Prize of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

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About Victor Horsley

Horsley (1857-1916) was the first neurosurgeon appointed to the National Hospital Queen Square, and was known worldwide as the ‘Father of Neurosurgery’. He was also a brilliant experimentalist, elected as FRS at the age of 29 years for his work on cerebral localization and comparative anatomy. He pioneered neurosurgery for epilepsy, tumours, abscesses, head injuries, spinal and pituitary diseases, and trigeminal neuralgia. He devised a stereotactic frame and a variety of new surgical techniques and technologies.

His work was not limited to neurosurgery: he made significant contributions to the understanding of rabies, thyroid disease, vaccines, antisepsis, anaesthesia, and military medicine. He was an iconoclast and social reformer, active in the Temperance Movement, a supporter of female suffrage, health care of the working class, vivisection, and medical reform. He stood for Parliament and served as president of the British Medical Association and was on the General Medical Council. He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Society, and was knighted in 1902. He worked to reform the medical services of the British Army and died on active duty, the only casualty of the First World War amongst the National Hospital senior staff.

REGISTRATION

All are welcome, and the event is free.

PROGRAMME

17:00 - 18:00

Sir Victor Horsley Memorial Lecture given by Dr Edward Chang, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco

Presentation: A neural code for words

Exploring fundamental discoveries that have revealed the neural computations and representations of human speech

18:00 - 19:30

Wine Reception

If you have any queries, please contact Morium Ali (morium.ali@ucl.ac.uk)

Dr Edward Chang