Michel Imbert was an internationally renowned researcher in Neurosciences of Vision and a true pioneer of interdisciplinarity. Following his initial training in philosophy and psychology, he specialized in neuroscience. His work primarily focused on the cortical processing of sensory information and the convergence of visual, auditory, and somatosensory modalities in cats. He served as a Professor at Université Pierre-et-Marie Curie (now Sorbonne Université) in Paris, was a Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and more recently, as an Emeritus Professor at the École Normale Supérieure in the Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs (LSP) in Paris.
In 1989, his passion for interdisciplinarity led him to create France’s first teaching program in Cognitive Sciences (later known as the “Cogmaster”), covering subjects that ranged from epistemology to artificial intelligence. In 1993, he founded the Centre de Recherche CERveau et COgnition (CerCo) in Toulouse. In 2000, he joined efforts with Jean-Luc Nespoulous (a neuropsycholinguist) to create the ISCT (Institut des Sciences du Cerveau de Toulouse), which initially brought together five laboratories and was a precursor to the TMBI (Toulouse Mind and Brain Institute).
Michel Imbert was an exceptional communicator of knowledge, deeply passionate about research and captivating to listen to. He authored several books, including two treatises on Functional Neurophysiology in Audition and Vision with Pierre Buser. His most recent published work paid tribute to research on optics and vision.
Michel passed away suddenly on February 19, 2026, while he still had plans to write about the history of Neurosciences in France.