The 25th anniversary VSS Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates Tatiana (Tania) Pasternak’s exceptional contributions to vision science over her life, recognizing her compelling research achievements, intellectual leadership, and dedicated, deep service to the scientific community.
Tatiana (Tania) Pasternak
Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Scientific Review Officer at the US National Institutes of Health
Tania is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester (NY, USA), and she serves as Scientific Review Officer at the National Institutes of Health (USA). She first came to the USA on a NATO fellowship to work with Dr. William Hodos at the University of Maryland, while completing her graduate work at the Neurophysiological Institute, Copenhagen University (Denmark). After earning her PhD in Behavioral Physiology from Copenhagen University, she carried out her postdoctoral research under the guidance of Dr. John Lott Brown at the University of Rochester, in the Center for Visual Science, before assuming a faculty position at Rochester.
Tania has been at the forefront of almost every major development in visual neuroscience since the 1980s, her exceptional technical skills and scientific insight enabling her to carry out challenging experiments in both psychophysics and animal neurophysiology, making crucial contributions to the understanding of the neural underpinnings of motion perception, attention and memory, amongst other core visual functions.
Tania has been a powerful mentor and inspiring role model, particularly for women in science. At the University of Rochester, she directed the graduate course on integrative neuroscience for over two decades, helping to launch many successful careers that we so admire now. She has deployed her seemingly boundless energy in serving the scientific community through numerous editorial roles and national grant review panels, providing an important voice of judgment and reason through turbulent periods of funding regime changes. In her current role as Scientific Review Officer at the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Tania’s experience and wisdom lend important ballast to initiatives in visual and cognitive neuroscience.
Tania has also played pivotal roles in the organization and management of major scientific societies that bind us all, including the Society for Neuroscience, ARVO, and, of course, VSS. Tania joined the first Board of Directors of VSS in 2002, after its founding in 2001 by Ken Nakayama and Tom Sanocki, and Tania not only continued to serve on the Board until 2008, but also was President of VSS for the 2006 and 2007 meetings. Two years as President shows remarkable fortitude and dedication.
For these immense and sustained contributions to vision science, in both fundamental understanding and practice, over a long and productive career, we are privileged to honor Tania Pasternak with the 25th anniversary VSS Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee (SPC) works with the members of the VSS Board of Directors to make VSS responsive to the needs of our trainee members and early career researchers. The SPC organizes special events and workshops for trainees in vision science during the annual VSS meeting. These include discussions on career transitions, inclusivity & accessibility, and new scientific directions. The SPC also consults with the board and with other vision community partners (FoVea, Visibility, SPARK) to provide trainees’ perspectives and optimize the society and the conference for trainee members.
Interested in joining SPC?
Each year, VSS solicits nominations for new members of the Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee to replace those rotating off. VSS seeks a diverse set of graduate and postdoctoral scholars to represent young investigators at a variety of career stages, who study a variety of topics, who bring diverse perspectives, and who reside in different regions of the globe. Service on the SPC (2-year term) provides an excellent opportunity to have a positive impact on the vision science community, to develop professional skills such as team building and project management, and to develop a track record of academic service. Watch for announcements from VSS in mid-February about how to apply.
Current SPC members are indicated below. Terms end in May of the year shown.
Noah Britt (2026)
McMaster University
Noah Britt is a PhD candidate at McMaster University in Canada, working under the supervision of Dr. Hong-jin Sun. His research aims to investigate how visual processing and attention mechanisms in real and virtual 3-D space. His dissertation research focuses on how attention can be modulated across depth by factors such as changing task contexts, induced action requirements in driving simulations, and behavioural affordances. As a member of the SPC, Noah is excited to bring an inclusive perspective that can assist the VSS community in supporting early career researchers.
Amy Bucklaew (2026) Record Keeper
University of Rochester
Amy Bucklaew is a PhD student at the University of Rochester working with Dr. Jude Mitchell. Her research aims to investigate the neural mechanisms of visual attention and saccadic eye movements using eye tracking, electrophysiology, and optogenetic techniques. Her dissertation research focuses on how extra-retinal signals modulate tunning and response properties of neurons in area MT/MTC. Amy is committed to listening to different perspectives across the VSS community and building support for the needs of fellow early career researchers.
Victoria Jacoby (2026) Record Keeper
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Victoria Jacoby is a postdoctoral scholar working with Dr. Jeremy Wolfe at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on visual attention, visual search, and perceptual expertise, with a particular emphasis on understanding the visual and perceptual processes involved in medical image perception. As a member of the SPC, Victoria is dedicated to advocating for early career researchers and fostering inclusivity and accessibility within the VSS community.
Akihito Maruya (2025) Chair
State University of New York
Akihito Maruya is a PhD student with Qasim Zaidi at the SUNY Graduate Center for Vision Research in NYC . He studies 3D perception in scenes and pictures, perception of rigid and non-rigid 3D objects, and form distortions perceived by adult and children amblyopes, using psychophysics and computational models. As a member of the VSS-SPC, he would like to make VSS even more inviting to students who have taken a non-traditional path to science and for whom English is not the first language.
Jes Parker (2025) Board Liaison
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Jes Parker is a graduate student in the Experimental Psychology doctoral program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. They primarily investigate visual perception and memory across saccadic eye movements using eye tracking and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Specifically, they are interested in examining visual stability, the role of different types of information in the establishment of object correspondence, and the interaction between saccades and visual working memory. As a member of the Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee, they want to contribute to the progress towards a more diverse community of researchers that fosters both the growing representation and retention of individuals from historically underrepresented populations.
Brady Roberts (2026)
University of Chicago
Brady is a postdoctoral scholar working with Dr. Wilma Bainbridge at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on how visual design influences what we remember. By investigating how common visual symbols (e.g., !@#$%) impact memory, he explores which visual and conceptual features make an image memorable or forgettable. As a member of the SPC, Brady intends to provide mentoring and support for early career researchers in the VSS community, creating an open and productive meeting for all.
Incoming Members
Casey Becker (2027)
The University of Pittsburgh
Casey Becker is a postdoctoral researcher with a PhD in visual and cognitive neuroscience from RMIT University, Australia. Her PhD focussed on the neural mechanisms of dynamic face perception, including the perception of AI-generated faces (deepfakes). She is currently at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neurosurgery, where she works with intracranial EEG and MEG to study naturalistic eye movements in response to faces and social stimuli. On the SPC, Casey aims to ensure that students and postdocs, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, can access the connections and resources they need to thrive and enjoy vision science.
Molly McKinney (2027)
Texas A&M University
Molly McKinney is a graduate student fellow in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience doctoral program at Texas A&M University working with Dr. Brian Anderson. She collaboratively investigates questions relating to attentional priority and the strategic control of attention using behavioral, psychophysical, and computational modeling methods. Her current research focus is to understand how to intrinsically motivate optimal visual search strategies as well as how and when these strategies develop. As a member of the SPC, she aims to represent the needs and concerns of post-baccalaureate and graduate students navigating non-linear career paths, particularly in ensuring access to financial and training resources for stability and successful transition through a long career in science!
VSS board members Geoff Boynton and Shin’ya Nishida will be stepping down this year. Four candidates, nominated by the membership and selected by an independent Nominating Committee, will compete in pairs for the two open positions.
Each newly elected Director will serve a four-year term on the VSS Board of Directors. Responsibilities of the Board include scheduling the Annual Meeting, implementing and monitoring VSS policies and budget, fundraising, and other VSS-related activities.
How to Vote
Log in to your MyVSS Account. In the 2025 Board of Directors Election section, click the Vote button. You must be a current Regular or Postdoc Member to vote. Other membership types will not see the 2025 Board of Directors Election section on their account home page.
Voting closes April 24, 2025 (11:59 pm latest time zone on earth).
Julie Golomb is a Professor of Psychology at the Ohio State University, where she directs the OSU Vision and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab and is head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Area and PhD program. She 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.
Sarah Shomstein is a Thelma Hunt Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington DC. Since 2007 she directs the Attention and Cognition Laboratory with research focused on attentional selection and cognitive control. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1998 and a Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from The Johns Hopkins University in 2003. Sarah is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Sarah’s research focuses on elucidating neural mechanisms of brain functioning pertaining to visual processing, attentional selection, and most recently venturing into multisensory perception. Research in her laboratory employs various methods that include psychophysics, neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG, and TMS), eye-tracking, and neuropsychology. Employing converging methodologies has been central to her research program. Most recent advances in Sarah’s lab examine the degree to which task-irrelevant high-level knowledge (e.g., semantic relationships, real world size, affordances) goes on to influence attentional prioritization.
Work in her laboratory is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Sarah is currently finishing her term as the Department Chair, a post she’s held since 2019. She is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics (first woman to hold this post) and at various times was an Editorial Board Member at the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review and Visual Cognition. She regularly sits on various panels and study sections at both NIH and NSF and is an ad-hoc reviewer for various international granting agencies.
Geoffrey Aguirre is a physician-scientist, Professor of Neurology, and Vice-Chair for Research at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies human visual perception and neural representation, with a particular focus on the effects of ophthalmologic and neurologic disease. His work combines several techniques, including functional MRI, psychophysics, and advanced stimulus spectral control.
Geoffrey completed his MD and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Mark D’Esposito, using patient studies and fMRI to identify the parahippocampal cortex as a key element of topographical representation. After residency training in Neurology, he joined the UPenn faculty in the division of Behavioral Neurology. His early independent research used adaptation and MVPA to examine the representation of faces and objects in extrastriate cortex. In parallel, he studied the effects of congenital vision loss upon the structure and function of visual cortex, and helped develop an atlas of retinotopic organization tied to cortical surface topology. More recently, he used advanced spectral control of flickering stimuli to target classes of retinal photoreceptors, including the melanopsin-containing ipRGCs, in an effort to understand the mechanistic basis of discomfort from bright and flickering light.
Although he prefers a relatively small laboratory with a close working relationship with his trainees, Geoffrey has served as the Associate Director of the UPenn Neurology residency program for a decade, is PI on training grants (a T32 and UE5), and is the co-Chair of the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation scientific advisory committee for career development awards. In 2023 he received the Graduate Medical Education Mentorship Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is the past-Chair of the NBVP (formerly SPC) NIH study section and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards. He is a Fellow of Optica and has served on the organizing committee of its Fall Vision Meeting. He is a former member of the editorial board of the Journal of Vision, and has served on the VSS abstract review committee for many years. Finally, Geoffrey is committed to responsible scientific advocacy to lay audiences. He is the Associate Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society at UPenn, where he considers the use and misuse of brain imaging data in public communication.
Chris Baker is a Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition and Chief of the Section on Learning and Plasticity in the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH. 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”.
Current Board of Directors
The names, term-end dates, and areas of expertise are listed below. Terms end immediately after the VSS meeting of the year listed.
Board Member
Term Ends
Expertise
Geoffrey Boynton
2025
Visual Attention, Visual Prosthetics, functional MRI, and Computational Neuroscience
Shin’ya Nishida
2025
Motion, Color and light, Multisensory processing, Object recognition
Anya Hurlbert
2026
Color and light, Object recognition, Scene perception
Attention, Pursuit, Electrophysiology in Mice and Monkeys
Michael Landy
2027
3D perception, Binocular vision, Sensory integration, Perception and action, Texture and Spatial vision, Material perception, Psychophysics, Computational models
Elsevier is proud to sponsor the 2025 Young Investigator Award and the VSS 2025 Elsevier/Vision Research Travel Awards.
Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity.
We help researchers make new discoveries, collaborate with their colleagues, and give them the knowledge they need to find funding. We help governments and universities evaluate and improve their research strategies. We help doctors save lives, providing insight for physicians to find the right clinical answers, and we support nurses and other healthcare professionals throughout their careers. Our goal is to expand the boundaries of knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
National Eye Institute
The National Eye Institute (NEI) conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems of individuals who are visually impaired or blind. Vision research is supported by the NEI through research grants and training awards made to scientists at more than 250 medical centers, hospitals, universities, and other institutions across the country and around the world. The NEI also conducts laboratory and patient-oriented research at its own facilities located on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
Silver Sponsors
J.S. Held
J.S. Held is a global consulting firm that combines technical, scientific, financial, and strategic expertise to advise clients seeking to realize value and mitigate risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high stakes matters demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, proven experience, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets.
Among myriad other specialized services, we provide product safety and user experience (UX) research across the entire product lifecycle based on five decades of human factors and failure analysis. We are always looking for qualified PhDs, postdocs, and early-career faculty interested in technical consulting.
Meta
Meta‘s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Learn more athttps://about.meta.com
Rogue Research, Inc.
Rogue Research has been your partner in neuroscience research for over 20 years. As developers of the Brainsight® family of neuronavigation systems for non-invasive brain stimulation, we have helped make transcranial magnetic stimulation more accurate and more reproducible while keeping it simple and effective. 20 years and over 1000 laboratories later, Brainsight® continues to evolve to meet the needs in non-invasive brain stimulation.
Rogue Research has expanded beyond navigation to develop our own, next-generation, TMS device: Elevate™ TMS. Elevate™ TMS offers control over the pulse shape to ensure more reproducible excitatory or inhibitory effects on the targeted network. While Brainsight® ensures accurate targeting and Elevate™ TMS ensures reliable circuit interaction, Rogue Research is also developing a robotic positioner to ensure that the plan is accurately and efficiently carried out. The unique design ensures accuracy, repeatability and simplicity.
Rogue Research also offers our Brainsight® Vet line of neurosurgical and neuronavigation tools for animal research. Come see our navigated microsurgical robot, which is the most accurate animal stereotaxic system on the market. We also offer custom MRI compatible implants and a line of MRI coils and testing platforms.
SR Research Ltd
SR Research produces the EyeLink family of high-speed eye trackers and has been enabling scientists to perform cutting-edge research since the early 1990s. EyeLink systems are renowned for their outstanding technical specifications, temporal precision, and superb accuracy. The EyeLink 1000 Plus has the world’s lowest spatial noise and can be used in the laboratory and in EEG/MEG/MRI environments. The EyeLink Portable Duo offers the same high levels of data quality in a small, portable package. SR Research also provides sophisticated experiment delivery and analysis software, and a truly legendary support service.
VPixx Technologies
VPixx has developed your innovative vision research hardware for over 24 years. Our PROPixx video projector, supporting refresh rates up to 1440Hz, has become the standard for neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and behavioral vision research applications. The PROPixx RIFT (Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging) paradigm is enabling ground-breaking MEG and EEG research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35452080/.
The TRACKPixx3 2kHz binocular eye tracker and the DATAPixx3 I/O hub offer microsecond-precise data acquisition synchronized to stimulus presentation. Our new LabMaestro software is making these instruments even easier to use, while Pack&Go is your solution for quickly running psychophysics experiments on remote subject populations.
2025 is a very special year, in which VPixx releases several innovative displays that the vision research community has been requesting. Visit our booth for exciting live demonstrations!
Bronze Sponsors
BrainVision LLC
Brain Vision LLC is the leading team for EEG in Vision Science. We offer full integration of EEG with many leading eye-tracking and video systems we also provide flexible and robust solutions for both stationary and mobile EEG. All of our systems are available with a variety of electrode types such as saline-sponge nets, active gel, passive, and dry electrodes, which are easily expandable with bio-sensors like GSR, ECG, Respiration, and EMG. Our team is specialized in using EEG with other modalities such as fMRI, fNIRS, MEG, TMS, and tDCS/HDtDCS.
If you want to know how EEG and Vision Science improve each other, please feel free to contact us: Phone: +1.877.EEG 4 MRI, Email:
Cambridge Research Systems
At Cambridge Research Systems, our reputation is founded on values of scientific rigour and integrity. For over 30 years, our unique range of Tools for Vision Science, Functional Imaging and Clinical Research has been ubiquitous in laboratories throughout the world, and cited in thousands of papers.
We design and develop innovative new tools that enable the advancement of science by combining engineering expertise with innovation, cutting edge technology, and ongoing collaboration with our valued academic partners. Our products are market leaders, our people committed and knowledgeable. Our ambition is to continue setting standards in the vision science community, of which we are proud to be a part.
We look forward to seeing you again at VSS! Please call at our booth to see our latest products for visual stimulation, eye tracking, vision assessment, and MRI; or contact .
Cortech Solutions, Inc.
Come see the new ActiveThree EEG system, the Brite wireless fNIRS system, and the new SAGA EEG system, all world class research instruments with the most advanced features, designed specifically for science. Also, we are the US representative for Cambridge Research Systems, providing the BOLDscreen calibrated display for fMRI, LiveTrack Lightning high speed eye-tracker, and Display++ calibrated LCD display, and more.
eLife
eLife transforms research communication to create a future where a diverse, global community of scientists and researchers produces open and trusted results for the benefit of all. Independent, not-for-profit and supported by funders, we improve the way science is practised and shared. In support of our goal, we’ve introduced the eLife Model that ends the accept-reject decision after peer review. Instead, papers invited for review are published as Reviewed Preprints that contain public peer reviews and an eLife Assessment.
Exponent In an era of radically-accelerating change, Exponent is the only premium engineering and scientific consulting firm with the depth and breadth of expertise to solve your most profoundly unique, unprecedented, and urgent challenges. Exponent brings together 90+ technical disciplines and 950+ consultants to help our clients navigate the increasing complexity of more than a dozen industries, connecting decades of pioneering work in failure analysis to develop solutions for a safer, healthier, sustainable world.
NIRx Medical Technologies, LLC
NIRx Medical Technologies, LLC is a leading provider of comprehensive solutions for functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) research. Our non-invasive and user-friendly fNIRS technology enables the measurement of neural activity in the cortex and large-scale cortical networks, providing insights into the neural mechanisms underlying perception and cognition.
Our complete range of research solutions includes a versatile multimodal hardware platform, advanced online and offline analysis software, expert technical and scientific support, and comprehensive training programs. We are dedicated to supporting fNIRS researchers through our offices in Orlando, New York, and Berlin, Germany.
Whether you’re investigating changes in neural activity during development, researching disorders and their treatments, or exploring new applications in neuroscience, NIRx has the expertise and solutions to help you achieve your research goals. For more information, please contact us at +49 308 1453 5990 (EU), (+1) 321-352-7570 (US/Canada), or email us at .
Psychology Software Tools
Psychology Software Tools – Developers of E-Prime stimulus presentation software. E-Prime includes E-Prime Go for remote data collection! Integrate E-Prime with eye tracking, EEG, fMRI and fNIRS with E-Prime Extensions for Tobii Pro, EyeLink, Net Station, Brain Products, fMRI, and NIRx. Use Chronos for millisecond-accurate responses, sound output, and triggers to external devices. Chronos Adapters provide a simple connection to external devices, including Brain Products, ANT Neuro, BIOPAC, BioSemi, Neuroscan, Magstim EGI, NIRx, Zeto, g.tec, and more. PST also provides solutions for fMRI research, such as Fiber Optic and Wireless Response Systems, a NEW Hyperion Projection System, and MRI Simulators with head motion tracking. PST has a 37-year company history with 100,000+ users in 75 countries!
Pupil Labs
At Pupil Labs we build eye tracking hardware and software. Our latest eye tracker – Neon – is modular and adapts to your research needs. We have a solution for almost all requirements. Whether you do research with kids, in a quiet lab, climbing a mountain, or venturing into virtual realms.
Neon uses deep learning algorithms to provide you with robust, accurate, and precise gaze and pupil data. Neon performs well in all environments – from complete darkness to direct sunlight. It works with all subjects: age, gender, ethnicity, eye make-up, contact lenses – no problem!
Our technology is open and accessible and seamlessly integrates with your existing toolkit: LSL, PsychoPy, MATLAB, and more. Over the last 10 years, we have developed strong relationships in academic research and have a dedicated team of specialists to help you achieve your research goals.
Come get a hands-on with Neon and meet our team at VSS 2025. Or get in touch with us on Discord or via email .
SilicoLabs
SilicoLabs builds tools that allow researchers to capture and decode behaviour to reveal the foundations of learning, decision-making, and actions.
Their flagship software, Labo, allows anyone to quickly and easily create interactive experiences that simulate the real world. Labo captures high-fidelity behavioural data, like hand, face, and eye-tracking when using XR devices, as well as data from biosensors like EEG.
WorldVizVR
WorldViz will present SightLab VR, a plugin to Vizard (Worldviz’s python platform for building VR applications), that can use either a GUI based interface or extended python code to allow users to easily set up VR eye tracking experiments (with little or no code) then collect, visualize, review and analyze eye tracking data. Supports for all the major PC based XR eye tracking devices including Vive Focus Vision, Varjo XR-4, Meta Quest Pro and more
It will allow drag and drop adding of videos and 3D models, and many of the most used analytics methods are included into the provided templates (visual search, reaction time, memory tasks and much more).
Build a scene, run your experiment and review in minutes. Fully expandable and modifiable by using the GUI configurator or python code. Additionally allows for multi user support.
The WorldViz components allow integration of highly targeted VR labs, and we are happy to help customers configure their own labs, tailored to their specific needs.
Coffee Break Sponsors
Center for Visual Science
The Center for Visual Science (CVS) at the University of Rochester is an interdisciplinary research center focused on understanding the visual system. Established in 1963, CVS brings together faculty, researchers, and students from various departments, including brain and cognitive sciences, optics, neuroscience, ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, computer science, psychiatry and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Its research covers a wide range of topics related to vision science, including basic mechanisms of visual perception, the development of visual systems, and the design of therapeutic interventions for visual disorders.
Stop by our table during the Saturday and Sunday afternoon coffee breaks in the Garden Courtyard!
Neurobridge
NEUROBRIDGE is an international programme of advanced education supporting international collaborations in the field of neuroscience and neurotechnologies. It is led by five Italian universities and it funds international exchanges for students and researchers, with a focus on Australia, Asia, Africa and South America.
On September 3-9 2025 Pisa is hosting the Neurobridge Summer School in Sensory Neuroscience. We welcome Master’s degree and early PhD students with a strong interest in exploring the neural mechanisms of sensation and perception and their plasticity. The school is open to participants from any institution and country, and has dedicated funding for those coming from partner institutions in the project.
To learn more about this and the other Neurobridge initiatives, stop by our table during the Saturday mid-morning coffee break in the Garden Courtyard!
University Professor and Silver Professor; Professor of Neural Science and Psychology; Professor of Ophthalmology and of Neuroscience and Physiology, and investigator, Neuroscience Institute (NYU School of Medicine)
Congratulations to Tony Movshon, the 2025 recipient of the Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science.
Saturday, May 17, 2025, 12:45 – 2:15 pm EDT, Banyan/Citrus
Organizers: Noah Britt (McMaster University); Victoria Jacoby, (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School); and Jes Parker (University of Tennessee-Knoxville) Moderator: Geoffrey Boynton (University of Washington) Speakers: Kirsten Adam (Rice University); Dennis Levi (University of California, Berkeley); Ming Meng (South China Normal University); Philipp Musfeld (University of Zurich)
The VSS-SPC invites you to a panel discussion on the role of open science in vision research and academic publishing. Invited speakers will explore the principles of open science—why it matters, how to implement it, and its impact on research transparency and reproducibility. We will also have additional speakers that will share and discuss how open science practices influence publishing and editorial processes in top peer-reviewed journals. The session will conclude with a valuable 30-minute Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to engage directly with all our well-esteemed speakers. Join us for an insightful discussion on navigating open science, publishing high-quality research, and shaping the future of scholarly communication.
Geoffrey Boynton
University of Washington
Geoffrey Boynton, is a VSS Board Member and studies visual attention, reading and prosthetic vision. After studying mathematics at U.C. San Diego and U.C. Santa Barbara, Dr. Boynton received a PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at U.C. Santa Barbara in 1994. After a decade at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington. In 2019 led an effort to develop a research MRI facility at the new Center for Human Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology which he now directs. He also teaches courses on visual perception and statistics.
Kirsten Adam
Rice University
Kirsten Adam is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. Her work uses neural methods (EEG, fMRI) and behavior to characterize fundamental constraints on visual attention and working memory. Dr. Adam earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Chicago. Website: https://adamlab.rice.edu/
Dennis Levi
University of California, Berkeley
Dennis M. Levi is an American Professor at the University of California, Berkeley with appointments in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. He received his diploma in Optometry in 1967 from the Witwatersrand School of Optometry, in Johannesburg, South Africa. His research focuses on how we see form and depth, and how these are impacted by abnormal early visual development, particularly amblyopia and strabismus. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and two books. His work has been cited almost 30,000 times and he has an h-index of 87 (Google Scholar). His research has been funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) since 1976.
Ming Meng
South China Normal University
Ming Meng earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University, completed postdoctoral training at MIT, and was a faculty member at Dartmouth College. He currently holds a Pearl River Scholar Distinguished Professorship at South China Normal University, and serves for the Board of Reviewing Editors (BRE) of eLife as well as a Consulting Editor for Visual Cognition. His lab explores the neural mechanisms underlying visual cognition and attention, both with and without visual awareness. These mechanisms are linked to activity within the broader visual processing and attentional neural networks, spanning the occipital, temporal, and parietal lobes in both hemispheres. His research sheds light on normal behavioral patterns and enhances our understanding of neurological disorders.
Philipp Musfeld
University of Zurich
Philipp Musfeld is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. He employs behavioral, computational, and neural methods (EEG) to investigate the information exchange between visual working memory and long-term memory. Parts of his work also concern the improvement of theory development, methodologies, and scientific practice in psychological research. Dr. Musfeld earned a B.S. in Psychology at the University of Cologne, an M.S. in Psychology at the University of Bonn, and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Zurich.
Organizers: William Broderick (Flatiron Institute)
Speakers: William Broderick (Flatiron Institute); Sarah Jo Venditto (Flatiron Institute)
plenoptic is an open source python package for model-based synthesis of perceptual stimuli. It is intended for use by researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning. The stimuli generated by plenoptic enable interpretation of model properties through features that are enhanced, suppressed, or discarded, and can be used in further experiments to validate or compare models. In addition to the synthesis methods, plenoptic contains a selection of vision science models and is compatible with external models written in pytorch, such as those found in torchvision.
This event is a hands-on tutorial in which participants will learn how to use plenoptic. After a brief introductory presentation, participants will work through a jupyter notebook which explains how to use the package to better understand computational visual models. They will be expected to follow along on their laptops, either running the code locally or using a provided binder instance on the cloud. Participants will learn which sorts of scientific questions can be addressed with plenoptic and how to use it in their own research.
Specifically, participants will be introduced to model metamers[1] and eigendistortions[2], and learn how they can be used to understand and compare a handful of simple visual models (e.g., a linear Gaussian convolutional model, linear center-surround convolutional model, and a simple model of gain control using divisive normalization).
The session will be interactive, with attendees encouraged to ask lots of questions. Attendance is capped at 30 participants.
[1]: e.g., as used in “A parametric texture model based on joint statistics of complex wavelet coefficients”, Portilla and Simoncelli, 2000
[2]: e.g., as used in “Eigen-distortions of hierarchical representations,” Berardino et al., 2017
Organizers: Laura Cacciamani (California Polytechnic State University); Benjamin Balas (North Dakota State University)
Speakers: Laura Cacciamani (California Polytechnic State University); Benjamin Balas (North Dakota State University); Nestor Matthews (Denison University); Anna Kosovicheva (University of Toronto, Mississauga)
Traditional teaching of courses like Sensation and Perception relies on lectures, textbooks, and exams. How can we better engage students in class and beyond? In this satellite event, we will present and discuss some novel, fun methods of teaching vision-related content, including hands-on activities, experiments, and projects that can be used for either in-person or online courses. We will cover potential benefits and challenges, as well as practical considerations such as how and when one could implement these approaches. We will also consider how we can use these unique teaching methods to engage students from diverse backgrounds, foster inclusivity, and raise awareness about sensory disabilities. This event will include some short presentations and demonstrations from seasoned instructors followed by an open forum for any and all current or future instructors of vision-related courses to discuss the presented ideas as well as exchange new ideas, best practices, and materials. We invite the VSS community to come learn from others and share their own experiences, thoughts, and approaches to teaching.
