Access All Program Information from Your Mobile Device

The VSS 2017 program is available in two electronic formats.

SmartPhone App
Compatibility: iPhone 5 or greater, running the latest iOS
No internet required after installation
The SmartPhone app, once downloaded, requires no internet connection. The app offers a program schedule, attendee directory, presenter directory and the ability to bookmark sessions and presentations, take notes and flag your favorites.
Installation Instructions:
1. Download and install the MA eEvent app from the Apple App Store: Download the App
2. Activate the app using one of the two following options:
Option 1: Enter “vss2017” as the username and password.
Option 2: Use the “scan event QR code option” and the QR code below.
NOTE: If you already have the app installed from the 2016 meeting, you will need to “Reset Meeting ID” first, before activating for 2017. The “Reset Meeting ID” option can be found inside the MA eEvent app, on the left menu.

Mobile Web App
Compatibility: All devices
Requires Internet
The mobile web app is compatible with all devices and allows you to view/search the full meeting program. In addition, you may access additional features such as an attendee directory, speaker directory and additional meeting information.
Access the Mobile Web App at: http://visionsciences1.org/vss_public/mobile/index.php
Log in with your VSS user name and password.

Pre-Registration Closes in Two Days!
After this Wednesday, the increased onsite registration rates will apply.

Register Now and Save!

Congratulations to the 2017 ARVO/VSS Research Fellowship Recipient:
Kathryn Bonnen, University of Texas at Austin

Kathryn Bonnen will apply her training in the perception of 3-dimensional motion and sensorimotor control to investigate how individuals with amblyopia use vision to guide action in everyday tasks.

The purpose of the ARVO/VSS Research Fellowship is to encourage and foster new collaborations between clinical and basic vision researchers to better train young scientists in the area of translational research. These fellowships will provide research funds to support students who wish to acquire training in a cross-disciplinary lab to promote their ability to perform translational research and compete for research funding as their career matures. In concept, trainees working in a clinical environment but desiring a career in translational research would benefit from a mentored program in a more basic science lab and a trainee in a basic research environment would benefit from a mentored program in a lab conducting translational research in a clinical environment.

Each year one or two $5,000 ARVO/VSS Research Fellowships will be offered. The goal is to fund one fellowship for an ARVO member-in-training who would benefit from training with a VSS member and one for a VSS member-in-training who would benefit from training with an ARVO member.

REMINDER:
Online Registration Closes
Wednesday, April 26, 2017

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VSS has joined other organizations in support of the March for Science on April 22, 2017. At least three members of the Board of Directors (David Brainard, Lynne Kiorpes and Andrew Watson) will attend the March in Washington and will carry a banner for our organization. If you would like to rally and march in Washington with VSS, please meet at the Albert Einstein Statue at 12 noon. Jeff Schall, Tony Norcia and Preeti Verghese will be marching in Nashville, San Jose and San Francisco, respectively. If you would like to join us at any of these locations, please send an email to .

Onward for Science!

Preeti Verghese
President, VSS Board of Directors, 2016-2017

The Vision Sciences Society is Honored to Present Jan J. Koenderink with the 2017 Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science

Jan J. Koenderink, Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands and Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie, Justus-Liebig Universität, Giessen, Germany Only a few scientists can be proud of a real breakthrough in vision science, very few can claim significant advances in multiple aspects of our visual experience, and almost none is an acclaimed researcher in two distinct disciplines. Jan Koenderink is this unique vision scientist. In both human and machine vision, Jan Koenderink has contributed countless breakthroughs towards our understanding of the properties of receptive field profiles, of the different types of optic flow, of the surface characteristics of three-dimensional shape, and more recently of the space of color vision. Together with his lifelong collaborator Andrea van Doorn, Jan Koenderink has approached each new problem in a humble, meticulous, and elegant way. While some papers may scare the less mathematical inclined reader, a bit of perseverance inevitably leads to the excitement of sharing with him a true insight. These insights have profoundly influenced our understanding of the functioning of the visual system. Some examples include: the structure of images seen through the lens of incremental blurring that led to the now ubiquitous wavelet representation of images, the minimal number of points and views to reconstruct a unique class of three-dimensional structures known as affine representations, the formal description of Alberti’s inventory of shapes from basic differential geometry principles, the careful description of the interplay between illumination and surface reflectance and texture, and many more. The approach of Jan Koenderink to systematically work in parallel on theoretical derivations and on psychophysical experimentations reminds us that behavioral results are uninterpretable without a theoretical framework, and that theoretical advances remain detached from reality without behavioral evidence. Jan Koenderink trained in astronomy with Maarten Minnaert at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and then in physics and mathematics. He earned his PhD in artificial intelligence and visual psychophysics with Maarten Bouman from Utrecht. He held faculty positions in Utrecht and Groningen in the Netherlands, and guest professorships from Delft University of Technology, MIT in the USA, Oxford in the UK, and KU Leuven in Belgium. Most significantly, he headed the “Physics of Man” department at the University of Utrecht for more than 30 years. Jan Koenderink has authored more than 700 original research articles and published 2 books of more than 700 pages each. He received many honors, among them a Doctor Honoris Causa in Medicine from KU Leuven, the Azriel Rosenfeld lifelong achievement award in Computer Vision, the Wolfgang Metzger award, the Alexander von Humboldt prize, and is a fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Ken Nakayama Medal is in honor of Professor Ken Nakayama’s contributions to the Vision Sciences Society, as well as his innovations and excellence to the domain of vision sciences. The winner of the Ken Nakayama Medal receives this honor for high-impact work that has made a lasting contribution in vision science in the broadest sense. The nature of this work can be fundamental, clinical or applied. The Medal is not a lifetime career award and is open to all career stages. The Medal will be presented during the VSS Awards Session on Monday, May 22, 2017, 12:30 pm in Talk Room 2.

 

The Election for the VSS Board of Directors Is Now Open

The election for two new members of the VSS Board of Directors is now open. To cast your vote for two 4-year positions on the VSS Board, go to http://www.visionsciences.org/2017-election/. Please help shape the future of VSS.

You must be a Regular 2017 VSS Member to be eligible to vote.

The Election closes at 11:59 pm (latest time zone on the planet) on Friday, April 28, 2017. Please consider voting now to avoid missing the deadline.

VSS Is Pleased to Announce the Second Annual “Meet the Professors” Event for Students and Postdocs
Monday, May 22
4:45 to 6:00 pm
(before the Demo Night BBQ)
Breck Deck North

This will be an opportunity for a free-wheeling, open-ended discussion with members of the VSS Board and a number of other professors. You might chat about science, the meeting, building a career, or whatever comes up.

The event will consist of two 30-minute sessions separated by a 15-minute snack break. Please select a different professor for each session. Participants must pre-register. Space is limited and is assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

Professors and VSS Board Members

David Brainard* (University of Pennsylvania) studies human color vision, with particular interests in the consequences of spatial and spectral sampling by the photoreceptors and in the mechanisms mediating color constancy.

Eli Brenner* (Free University, Amsterdam) studies how visual information is used to guide our actions.

Marisa Carrasco (NYU) uses human psychophysics, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to investigate the relation between the psychological and neural mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention.

Isabel Gauthier (Vanderbilt University) uses behavioral and brain imaging methods to study perceptual expertise, object and face recognition, and individual differences in vision.

Julie Harris (St. Andrews) studies our perception of the 3D world, including binocular vision and 3D motion. She also has an interest in animal camouflage.

Sheng He (University of Minnesota & Institute of Biophysics, CAS) uses psychophysical and neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG) methods to study spatiotemporal properties of vision, binocular interaction, visual attention, visual object recognition, and visual awareness.

Michael Herzog (EPFL – Switzerland) studies spatial and temporal vision in healthy and clinical populations.

Todd Horowitz (National Cancer Institute) is broadly interested in how vision science can be leveraged to reduce the burden of cancer, from improving detection and diagnosis to understanding the cognitive complaints of cancer survivors.

Lynne Kiorpes* (NYU) uses behavioral and neurophysiological approaches to study visual development and visual disability. The goal is to understand the neural limitations on development and the effects of abnormal visual experience.

Dennis Levi (UC Berkeley) studies plasticity both in normal vision, and in humans deprived of normal binocular visual experience, using psychophysics and neuroimaging.

Ennio Mingolla (Northeastern) develops and tests of neural network models of visual perception, notably the segmentation, grouping, and contour formation processes of early and middle vision in primates, and on the transition of these models to technological applications.

Concetta Morrone (University of Pisa) studies the visual system in man and infants using psychophysical, electrophysiological, brain imaging and computational techniques. More recent research interests have been vision during eye-movement, perception of time and plasticity of the adult visual brain.

Tony Norcia* (Stanford University) studies the intricacies of visual development, partly to better understand visual functioning in the adult and abnormal visual processing.

Aude Oliva (MIT) studies human vision and memory, using methods from human perception and cognition, computer science and human neuroscience (fMRI, MEG)

Mary Peterson (University of Arizona) uses behavioral methods, neuropsychology, ERPs, and fMRI to investigate the competitive processes producing object perception and the interactions between perception and memory.

Jeff Schall* (Vanderbilt University) studies the neural and computational mechanisms that guide, control and monitor visually-guided gaze behavior.

James Tanaka (University of Victoria) studies the cognitive and neural processes of face recognition and object expertise. He is interested in the perceptual strategies of real world experts, individuals on the autism spectrum and how a perceptual novice becomes an expert.

Preeti Verghese* (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute) studies spatial vision, visual search and attention, as well as eye and hand movements in normal vision and in individuals with central field loss.

Andrew Watson* (Apple) studies human spatial, temporal and motion processing, computational modeling of vision, and applications of vision science to imaging technology.

Jeremy Wolfe* (Harvard Med & Brigham and Women’s Hospital) studies visual attention and visual search with a special interest in socially important tasks like cancer screening in radiology.

Note: Members of the VSS Board are indicated with an asterisk*, in case you have a specific interest in talking to a board member.

Register for “Meet the Professors”

Janneke F.M. Jehee, Principal Investigator at the Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Raboud University, Nijmegan, Netherlands, is the winner of the 2017 Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Jehee works on the fundamental problem of understanding how the brain represents the visual properties of the environment. Her contributions have used multiple approaches, including computational modeling, psychophysical experimentation and fMRI, to study the interaction between the bottom-up encoding of stimulus features and top-down influences, such as predictability, attention, and learning. She had developed a series of original and innovative rigorous computational models of neural coding, and tested those models against data from single neurons and fMRI, as well as psychophysical observations.

Dr. Jehee will speak at the VSS Awards Session on Monday, May 22 at 12:30 pm in Talk Room 2.

To learn more about Janneke F.M. Jehee and her recent groundbreaking work, please visit the Young Investigator Award page.

Congratulations to the 2017 Student Travel Award Winners. The VSS Travel Awards, sponsored by Elsevier/Vision Research, are presented to twenty graduate students who have submitted highly-rated abstracts for the 2017 Meeting. Awards are based upon the merit of the work that the student will be presenting as determined by the VSS Abstract Review Committee, as well as letters of support from advisors and a personal statement from the candidate.  See Travel Awards for a list of this years winners.