1959-. British neuroscientist and physicist.
Originated the free energy principle: biological systems minimize variational free energy to persist.
Developed active inference, a unified framework where perception, action, and learning are aspects of the same optimization process.
Pioneered statistical parametric mapping (SPM) for brain imaging, the standard tool in neuroimaging.
His predictive processing framework models the brain as a hierarchical inference engine, minimizing prediction error.
The free energy principle connects thermodynamics, information theory, and biology under a single variational bound.
Active inference provides a computational model for autonomous agents, directly relevant to cyber protocol agents and machine learning.