Young Investigator Award
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Winner of the 2009 VSS Young Investigator Award
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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
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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
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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.
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