Rich trained as an undergraduate in biology at Princeton, and as a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of California San Francisco where he first began studying eye movements and visual processing. After a post-doc at the National Eye Institute, Rich started his own lab at the Salk, where he launched a research program investigating eye movements, attention, and visual perception in humans and non-human animals. He moved his laboratory to the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research in 2011. He has a joint appointment in the National Institute of Drug Abuse and retains an adjunct Professor position at the Salk Institute.

Rich’s science uses a range of techniques including psychophysics, electrophysiology, fMRI, pharmacologic manipulations, optogenetics and photometry. His approach is to use combinations of neuronal recordings, behavioral assessments, and causal manipulations to identify the functional organization of brain circuits. He is probably best known for his work on smooth pursuit eye movements, saccades, microsaccades, and fixation, and for the series of experiments revealing the crucial role of subcortical brain regions in the control of visual selective attention. His more recent work has shown how evolutionarily ancient brain structures play key roles in higher visual functions, including the processing of faces and visual objects.

Rich has served on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Vision, Vision Research and Annual Review of Vision Science, has authored numerous review articles on eye movements and visual attention, including the chapter ‘Eye Movements’ in the graduate textbook Fundamental Neuroscience, and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The research program builds on the premise that any deep understanding of perception and cognition requires studying their key processes in observers that actively behave, exploring and manipulating their environment.

After a Diploma in psychology, Martin completed his doctorate at the University of Potsdam in 2007 with highest distinction (summa cum laude). For his dissertation on the generation of microscopic eye movements, Martin received the Heinz Heckhausen Award of the German Psychological Society. He spent formative postdoc years at Université Paris Descartes, New York University and Aix-Marseille Université, investigating links between eye movements, attention, and perception.

In 2012, he established an Emmy Noether junior research group, working on attention in active vision at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin. In 2018, he was appointed Heisenberg professorship for Experimental Psychology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he is now a full professor. He has since also served as an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Vision. Martin is a founding member of Berlin’s Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, a transdisciplinary research center investigating the principles underlying all forms of intelligence. His research is funded by the German Research foundation (DFG) and a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant, studying how visual action shapes active vision.

After completing her Ph.D, MiYoung joined the Computational and Functional Vision Lab at the University of Southern California as a postdoctoral research associate. Following her time at USC, MiYoung completed another two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School. Between 2014 and 2020, MiYoung served on the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Through a multidisciplinary approach that combines psychophysics, computational modeling, eye tracking, brain and retinal imaging techniques, MiYoung’s research is dedicated to unraveling how the human visual system deals with sensory impairments. To this end, her work primarily focuses on understanding statistical properties of the visual world under degraded viewing conditions, the cortical representation of degraded visual information, and the subsequent modifications in perceptual and cognitive processing. Her past and ongoing research projects cover a broad spectrum of topics, including brain adaptability following central vision loss, information processing in peripheral vision, perceptual and cortical changes induced by prolonged contrast deprivation, and binocular interactions in amblyopic vision. Recent efforts have also delved into understanding the impact of ganglion cell pathology on spatial vision and exploring the effects of degraded visual inputs on oculomotor strategies. Therefore, her interdisciplinary research program integrates state-of-the-art research techniques and theoretical frameworks to bridge the gap between fundamental vision science and clinical applications. Her research has been funded by the NIH/National Eye Institute, the Eye-Sight Foundation of Alabama, and Research to Prevent Blindness.

MiYoung frequently serves on the NIH Scientific Review Panel. Furthermore, she has been an active member of VSS, serving on the Abstract Review Committee, Travel Awards Review Committee, and the Meet-the-Professors panel.

At NYU, Michael has served as Coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Cognition & Perception off and on for over 20 years. He has been a senior editor for Vision Research and on the editorial boards of Visual Neuroscience, Multisensory Research and, currently, Journal of Vision.

He is an author of some 120+ papers and chapters, and co-editor of 3 edited collections. He has worked in a wide variety of research areas including sensory cue integration (including multisensory work involving vision, touch, proprioception and audition), perception of depth, surface material properties and texture, perceptual decision-making and visual control of movement (reaching and saccades). Much of this work involves empirical behavioral work coupled with computational models, including both ideal-observer, Bayesian models as well as sub-optimal heuristic models of human performance. Recent theoretical contributions include new models of reaction time in discrimination experiments and of cortical adaptation.

Paola was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship and returned to Italy in 2013, where she joined the University of Pisa as assistant professor of physiology (she became associate professor in 2019). Paola’s lab is primarily funded by a ERC (European Research Council) Starting grant. They study how visual processing is shaped by multimodal context, which includes upcoming actions and predictions based on stimulus history. Their studies involve human volunteers, with a focus on neurodiversity. They use a combination of ultra-high field functional Magnetic Resonance imaging, psychophysics, eye-tracking and pupillometry.

Chris’s research interests focus broadly on high-level vision (faces, objects, scenes) and the role of learning and plasticity in shaping visual processing. His approach is fundamentally multidisciplinary and often cross-species, using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), transcranial electrical/magnetic stimulation (tES/TMS), behavioral measures (psychophysics, eyetracking), and computational methods.

Chris earned his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and his PhD in Psychology from the University of St Andrews where he studied the neurophysiology of face and body perception with David Perrett. In postdoctoral work, he first worked with Carl Olson and Marlene Behrmann at Carnegie Mellon University, conducting studies in both human and non-human primates, before acquiring expertise in human neuroimaging with Nancy Kanwisher at MIT. In 2006, Chris joined the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health where he is now a Senior Investigator.

Chris has served as Reviewing Editor at The Journal of Neuroscience and Senior Editor at eLife, as well as editing Special Issues for Neuroimage and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. He has been a regular attendee at VSS since 2002 and has organized three symposia (“How learning changes the brain”, “What has the past 20 years of neuroimaging taught us about human vision and where do we go from here?”, and “The temporal evolution of visual perception”). He received the NIH Director’s Award for Individual Contribution in 2021 and multiple awards for mentorship and for “Making a Difference”.

Julie received her BS in Neuroscience from Brandeis University, her PhD in Neuroscience from Yale University with Marvin Chun and James Mazer, and did a postdoctoral research fellowship at MIT with Nancy Kanwisher before moving to Ohio State in 2012.

Julie’s research investigates how we achieve stable and integrated visual perception, and how perception, attention, and working memory interact. Her lab uses a variety of methodologies – including human behavior, eye-tracking, advanced fMRI and EEG methods, and computational modeling – to explore how objects and their spatial locations are perceived and coded in the brain, and how these representations are influenced by eye movements, shifts of attention, and other top-down factors. Her lab has been funded by grants and fellowships from NIH, NSF, Sloan Foundation, and NSERC.

Julie was the VSS awardee of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award in 2019 and has been recognized with other awards including APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience, and APF Fantz Award. She is an Associate Editor at Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, and she has served on NIH and NSF study sections and various leadership committees representing Ohio State psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science communities.

Julie is a dedicated member of the VSS community. She has attended every VSS for the past 20 years and has served on VSS Abstract Review and Young Investigator Award committees. She is passionate about mentoring and supporting the next generation of vision scientists.

Karen received her BA in Psychology (minor in Architecture) from Barnard College, her PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley with Stephen Palmer, and continued in Berkeley as a Postdoc until 2013, when she became an Assistant Professor of Research at Brown University. In 2016, Karen joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madision.

Karen’s research investigates how people interpret meaning from visual features, with a focus on color and perceptual organization. Her research addresses basic questions in information visualization and visual cognition, with the goal of making visual communication more effective and efficient. Her lab also develops virtual reality educational tools, such as the UW Virtual Brain Project, to help make science accessible and engaging. Her research has been funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including an NSF CAREER award in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Steve Yantis Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society. From 2022-2024, she served as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Karen is deeply committed to serving the Vision Science community. She co-founded Females of Vision et al. (FoVea) in 2015, which aims to increase the visibility, impact, and success of women in vision science, while creating opportunities for everyone who seeks to participate in the field of Vision Science (indicated by the “et al.”). She has held leadership roles in FoVea since its inception, including chairing the FoVea Travel and Networking Award Committee from 2016-2024 and serving as PI or co-PI on four NSF grants that have continually supported FoVea’s activities. In 2021 she co-founded Mentoring Envisioned in partnership with other members of FoVea, SPARK, and Visibility to develop a community of near-peer mentoring and increase inclusivity within the Vision Sciences Society. She has also served on the VSS Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board since 2021, has served on the VSS Abstract Review Committee since 2022, and served on the Demo Night committee from 2014-2020 and in 2023. Extending outside of VSS, Karen is the President of the Configural Processing Consortium, which unites scientists studying configural/holistic perception and cognition, with an emphasis on perceptual organization. Karen has attended every VSS for the past 20 years, and is driven to support the continued success of the society and its members. [/magic-expand]

.

Cong later served as professor at Beijing Normal University and Peking University and is now Professor of Psychology at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Cong’s research follows two complementary lines. One uses human psychophysics to study visual perceptual learning and its applications, as well as letter recognition/crowding and perceptual organization. The other, more recent line uses two-photon calcium imaging and artificial neural networks to study population activity in the early visual cortex of awake macaques and its contribution to foundational psychophysical phenomena. Together, these two lines of work reflect his longstanding interest in how visual systems learn, organize, and represent information.

Cong has been a deeply committed member of the vision science community. He has served on the editorial board of Vision Research since 2006, co-founded the biennial International Workshop on Perceptual Learning, was a member of the VSS Abstract Review Committee from 2011 to 2021, chaired the organizing committee for the Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV 2013), and now serves on the VSS David Teller Award Committee. He values VSS as an international community that brings together researchers across approaches, career stages, and regions, and he is especially enthusiastic about supporting the next generation of vision scientists while helping the field continue to grow in openness, rigor, and global reach. [/magic-expand]