biology

Raymond Joseph Dolan

Raymond Joseph Dolan is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Raymond Joseph Dolan rather than just read about it. In short: Raymond Joseph Dolan (born 21 January 1954) is an Irish neuroscientist and the Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry at University College London, where he was also the founding director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. In 2026, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Key takeaways

Raymond Joseph Dolan belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Raymond Joseph Dolan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Raymond Joseph Dolan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raymond Joseph Dolan (born 21 January 1954) is an Irish neuroscientist and the Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry at University College London, where he was also the founding director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. In 2026, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Honours and awards In 2006 he was awarded the Golden Brain Award by the Minerva Foundation. In 2015 he presented the Paul B. Baltes Lecture at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He was one of three recipients of the 2017 Brain Prize, along with Peter Dayan and Wolfram Schultz. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Association for Psychological Science. In 2016, he was ranked by Semantic Scholar as the second-most influential neuroscientist in the modern world, behind only his UCL colleague Karl Friston. In 2019 he was awarded the Ferrier Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society.

References

Further reading "Ray Dolan: Blues on the brain". BMJ. 357 j2279. 17 May 2017. doi:10.1136/bmj.j2279. ISSN 0959-8138. PMID 28515035. S2CID 206915219.

External links Faculty page Raymond Joseph Dolan publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raymond Joseph Dolan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raymond Joseph Dolan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Raymond Joseph Dolan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Raymond Joseph Dolan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Raymond Joseph Dolan

In research: Raymond Joseph Dolan appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Raymond Joseph Dolan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Raymond Joseph Dolan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, Academics of University College London, Alumni of the National University of Ireland, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raymond Joseph Dolan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Raymond Joseph Dolan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raymond Joseph Dolan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Raymond Joseph Dolan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Raymond Joseph Dolan in simple terms?

Why does Raymond Joseph Dolan matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Raymond Joseph Dolan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Raymond Joseph Dolan.