Werner E. Reichardt (30 January 1924 – 18 September 1992) was a German physicist and biologist who helped to establish the field of biological cybernetics.

As a young student, Werner Reichardt was a pupil in the laboratory of Hans Erich Hollmann, a pioneer of ultra-shortwave communication.

In 1958 he founded together with Bernhard Hassenstein and Hans Wenking the cybernetics research group at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biology in Tübingen.

From joint work (with Bernhard Hassenstein and Hans Wenking) on the visual system of insects and its effect on the flight orientation, the correlation model developed the idea that the visual system of man could be similarly investigated, and led to a general theory of motion perception In the 1950s, Reichardt and Hassenstein proposed a model explaining how a neuron, receiving input from photoreceptors that respond exclusively to changes in luminance, could be used to compute motion.

By comparing the phase shifts of activity in adjacent cells, the model suggests the direction of movement can be determined as it passes from one neuron's receptive field to another.