Patrick Haggard is a distinguished cognitive neuroscientist whose pioneering work has transformed our understanding of human consciousness and action. He currently serves as Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, where he leads the Action and Body Group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. Following his undergraduate studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he pursued a year as a Harkness Fellow at Yale University before returning to complete his PhD at Cambridge in 1991. His early career included three years as a Wellcome Trust prize fellow at the University of Oxford, culminating in his appointment as a lecturer at University College London in 1995, where he steadily advanced to senior lecturer and then to readership before securing his current professorial position.
Professor Haggard's groundbreaking research has fundamentally advanced the experimental study of human volition, moving the field beyond purely conceptual discussions of free will toward measurable neural mechanisms. His innovative work on voluntary action and bodily sensation has produced over 500 publications, including his influential 2019 review The Neurocognitive Bases of Human Volition which has become a cornerstone reference in cognitive neuroscience. By developing and refining experimental paradigms that link subjective experience with brain activity, he has established critical frameworks for understanding how consciousness relates to motor control and agency. His intellectual history of the Libet experiment has provided essential context for contemporary debates about volition, while his research on somatosensation has illuminated how the brain constructs our fundamental sense of bodily self.
Beyond his research contributions, Professor Haggard has significantly shaped the field through his international collaborations and leadership roles, including his participation in the Reimar Lüst Award Programme for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange in 2022. As a Fellow of the British Academy since 2014 and recipient of the prestigious Jean Nicod Prize in 2016, he has established himself as a leading voice in philosophical neuroscience. He actively contributes to training the next generation of researchers through his role as co-organizer of the UCL-PSL Summer School in Consciousness and Metacognition. Currently engaged in a one-month writing residency at the Institut d'études avancées de Paris in June 2024, Professor Haggard continues to push the boundaries of our understanding of conation and the qualitative character of conscious mental states.
