Associate Professor of Neurology
We need creative, interdisciplinary approaches to support older adults' decision-making.
Winston's interests lie at the intersection of ethics, clinical neurology and cognitive neuroscience. He studies the neural bases of decision making in the aging brain in both health and disease. He also studies the ethical and policy implications of age- and disease-related changes in decision-making.
My grandfather, Choo Teng Tan
Drawing inspiration for diverse sources
People are now making more complex and consequential decisions much later in life than ever before. We need creative, interdisciplinary approaches to support older adults' decision-making.
Winston is a behavioral neurologist caring for patients with cognitive disorders of aging. He is also a cognitive neuroscientist, investigating decision-making in aging and disease. Third, Winston is a neuroethicist, researching the broader implications of decision-making given altered brain function.
Winston is interested in questions at the intersection of neuroscience and society. He believes that addressing these questions can bring social insights to improve brain science and also can leverage advances in our understanding of the brain for broader public benefit.
Winston received his PhD degree in philosophy from New York University and his MD degree from UCSF. After his neurology residency at UCSF, he underwent postdoctoral research training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging at UC Berkeley and clinical training in dementia at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He is Co-Chair of the UCSF Department of Neurology Diversity Committee and is a member of the UCSF Medical Center Ethics Committee. Nationally, he serves on the Neuroethics Working Group of the National Institutes of Health BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Multi-Council Working Group and the American Academy of Neurology’s Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee.
Winston
a Note