Young Investigator Award

Winner of the 2009 VSS Young Investigator Award

Dr. Frank Tong

Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology

This year's winner of the VSS Young Investigator Award is Frank Tong, Associate Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University. In the nine years since receiving his PhD from Harvard, Frank has established himself as one of the most creative, productive young vision scientists in our field. His research artfully blends psychophysics and brain imaging to address important questions about the neural bases of awareness and object recognition. He has published highly influential papers that have been instrumental in shaping current thinking about the neural bases of multistable perception, including binocular rivalry. Moreover, Frank has played a central role in the development and refinement of powerful analytic technique for deriving reliable population signals from fMRI data, signals that can predict perceptual states currently being experienced by an individual. Using these pattern classification techniques, Frank and his students have identified brain areas that contain patterns of neural responses sufficient to support orientation perception, motion perception and working memory.

The YIA award was presented at the Keynote Address on Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 pm.

Winner of the 2008 VSS Young Investigator Award

Dr. David Whitney

Department of Psychology and Center for Mind & Brain, University of California, Davis

Dr. David Whitney has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the VSS Young Investigator Award in recognition of the extraordinary breadth and quality of his research. Using behavioral and fMRI measures in human subjects, Dr. Whitney has made significant contributions to the study of motion perception, perceived object location, crowding and the visual control of hand movements. His research is representative of the diversity and creativity associated with the best work presented at VSS.

The YIA award was presented at the Keynote Address on Saturday, May 10, at 7:00 pm.

Winner of the 2007 VSS Young Investigator Award

Zoe Kourtzi, PhD

Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham

Dr. Zoë Kourtzi has been chosen as the first recipient of the VSS Young Investigator Award.  The Award Committee recognized her many outstanding fMRI studies that characterized the neural loci of shape processing in the human cortex.  Her development of an important, widely used fMRI technique, “event-related adaptation’ was also commended.  Her recent fMRI work on the maturation of visual evoked activity in primates is a promising new direction in her research program and demonstrates the diversity of her interests. This creative productive young scientist represents the best qualities of the VSS community.

The YIA award was presented at the Keynote Address on Sunday, May 13, at 7:00 pm.