Allan Snyder

Allan Whitenack Snyder (born 1942) is the director of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney, Australia where he also holds the 150th Anniversary Chair of Science and the Mind. He is a co-founder of Emotiv Systems and winner of the International Australia Prize in 1997 and the Marconi Prize in 2001 for his contributions to optical physics. Snyder is also the Creator and Chairman of the What Makes a Champion? forum, an official Olympic cultural event first held at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He is also the Chair of Research on the MindChamps World Research, Advisory and Education Team, with a focus on neuroscience.

Snyder's research career began in optical physics. More recently, he has worked on mind sciences. He has appeared on television demonstrating how transcranial magnetic stimulation to the left temporal lobe can induce savant-like skills.

Savant hypothesis Snyder is interested in understanding savants. In savants, according to Snyder, the top layer of mental processing—conceptual thinking, making logical deductions—is somehow deactivated. His working hypothesis is that once this layer is inactivated, there is a capacity for recalling the minute detail or for performing lightning-quick calculations. He believes it may be possible someday to create technologies that will allow any non-autistic person to access these abilities.

Awards He won the Harrie Massey Medal and Prize in 1996.

In December 2001 he received the Marconi Prize in New York City.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1990