Matthew Larkum grew up in Sydney, graduating from Sydney University in 1991. Since then, he has pursued a career in Switzerland and Germany, including a post-doctoral research position in the laboratory of Bert Sakmann (Nobel Prize winner for the invention of the patch-clamp method). In 2011, he was appointed to the chair for “Neuronal Plasticity” at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he now runs a laboratory of ~30 people investigating a theory of cortex based on the non-linear computational properties of cortical neurons. His “Dendrite Hypothesis” has proven useful for investigating the nature of cognition and conscious processing in the brain. Larkum’s scientific output is now leading to new understandings about how the cortex operates and how the events related to conscious perception involve, and rely on, memory. His work lays out a roadmap for the next decade for understanding some of the deepest mysteries of the brain.