2023 Career Transitions Workshop, Part 1: Early Career Panel

Sunday, May 21, 7:30– 8:30 pm, Horizons

Organized by: VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee (SPC)

Organizers: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven; Stephanie Shields, The University of Texas at Austin; Maruti V Mishra, University of Richmond
Moderator: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven
Panelists: Angelica Godinez, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, University of Iceland; Madhu Mahadevan, Magic Leap; N Apurva Ratan Murty, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Alex White, Barnard College

Career transitions are both exciting and scary. Some of the uncertainty regarding a new role, however, can be reduced by talking to others who have made similar transitions. This year VSS-SPC and FoVea together present a two-part ‘Career Transitions Workshop’ on navigating these diverse pathways, with Part 1: Early Career Panel and Part 2: Where do I go from here? Round-Table Discussion.

Part 1 will feature a panel discussion on early career transitions, from the undergraduate level up through securing faculty positions and jobs outside of academia. A panel of vision scientists with a variety of chosen career paths will discuss their stories, the transitions they’ve gone through in their careers, and how they made the key decisions that led them to their current jobs. After each panelist gives an overview of their story, audience members will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session with the panel. The panel will include representatives from both academia and industry, so attendees will hear firsthand perspectives both on navigating academia and on transitioning between academia and industry. Especially given the recent layoffs in industry and the pandemic’s lasting impact on hiring in higher education, we hope the panel will provide useful insights into current trends affecting early career researchers and ideas for how trainees can increase their chances of success in today’s professional landscape.

Following this panel discussion, participants will be invited to attend Part 2 of the Career Transitions Workshop, where they can take part in small group discussions and enjoy light snacks and drinks.

Note: All are welcome to attend both parts of this workshop, to only attend Part 1, or to only attend Part 2.

Angelica Godinez

Postdoctoral Researcher, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Angie, is a vision scientist and postdoctoral researcher working in Martin Rolfs’ Active perception and Cognition lab at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and in the German Excellence cluster Science of Intelligence. As part of the cluster, her research is aimed at understanding visual processing for perception and action as an attempt to improve current models of perceptual processing and contribute insights to AI and robotics. Prior to her postdoc, Angie received a BS in Psychology and MS in Human Factors and Ergonomics from San Jose State University. During this time, she worked in the Visuomotor Control Lab at NASA Ames Research Center where she conducted low-level vision research (i.e., eye-movement responses to changes in stimulus contrast and luminance) and applied research on the physiological changes due to vibration and acceleration. For her PhD in vision science at the University of California, Berkeley, she worked with Dennis M. Levi on the impact, recovery and possible adaptations of poor binocular vision. While at Berkeley, she completed an internship at NVIDIA where she applied her knowledge of visual processing to gaze-contingent rendering in an attempt to reduce bandwidth and increase rendering speed in computer graphics.

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth

Assistant Professor, University of Iceland

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iceland and a Co-PI of the Icelandic Vision Lab. She obtained her PhD from Université Paris Descartes followed by postdoctoral positions at the University of Iceland and the University of Lille. She is interested in the mechanisms used to represent information in visual memory. For that, she investigates probabilistic representations of visual ensembles, visual priming and perceptual biases such as serial dependence. She was a former member of the VSS Student-Postdoctoral Advisory Committee and looking forward to this year’s career transitions workshop, sharing her experiences and discussing with ECRs and the other panelists.

Madhu Mahadevan

Research Scientist, Magic Leap

Dr. Madhu Mahadevan is a vision research scientist at Magic Leap, Inc. She started her career as a clinical optometrist in India with a primary focus on low vision eye care and contact lens management. She then completed her PhD working with Dr. Scott Stevenson on visual attention and eye movements from the University of Houston, College of Optometry, TX. During her doctoral program, she was a research intern at Nvidia, Santa Clara, CA working on auto calibration of eye trackers in virtual reality headsets. After graduation, she joined as a user experience researcher at Human Interfaces, Austin, TX where she used product research methods to help multiple stakeholders interested in enhancing user experience across consumer and enterprise products. She is currently working at Magic Leap, Inc on their augmented reality headset where she uses applied vision concepts and optometric principles in conjunction with product research methods to evaluate design decisions and make optimal choices to help users have a comfortable viewing experience.

N Apurva Ratan Murty

Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ratan received his PhD in Neuroscience from the Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His PhD research with Prof. S.P. Arun elucidated the computational mechanisms underlying viewpoint invariant representations in the monkey inferotemporal cortex. He is currently a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence fellow and Research Scientist at MIT with Profs. Nancy Kanwisher and Jim DiCarlo. In his current research, he uses methods from cognitive neuroscience, human neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and artificial intelligence, to investigate the development and cortical organization of human visual intelligence.

Alex White

Assistant Professor, Barnard College

Alex White has been studying vision since he first attended VSS as an undergraduate in 2006. He is particularly interested in visual word recognition, selective attention, eye movements, and awareness. He got his PhD working with Dr. Marisa Carrasco at NYU in 2013. After a meandering but fruitful postdoctoral journey, he started a faculty position at Barnard College in 2021. An NIH K99/R00 award facilitated that transition. For more information on his current research, see his lab website. Alex also co-organizes the Visibility events at this conference.

Claudia Damiano

Postdoctoral Researcher, KU Leuven

Claudia Damiano holds a PhD from the University of Toronto (2019) and is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, specializing in scene perception and visual aesthetics. Broadly, her research aims to understand how visual features impact aesthetic preferences and guide attention. In her current project, she explores the cognitive and emotional benefits of interacting with nature using eye-tracking and virtual reality techniques. Her work contributes to our understanding of the relationship between human perception and the appreciation of natural environments. Claudia has served as a panelist on similar early-career panels, offering advice to Master’s and PhD students about transitioning to a postdoc position. As a moderator, she will ensure that the panel offers valuable insights and actionable advice to attendees.

2023 Career Transitions Workshop, Part 1: Early Career Panel

Sunday, May 21, 7:30– 8:30 pm, Horizons

Organized by: VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee (SPC)

Organizers: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven; Stephanie Shields, The University of Texas at Austin; Maruti V Mishra, University of Richmond

Moderator: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven

Note: All are welcome to attend both parts of this workshop, to only attend Part 1, or to only attend Part 2.

2023 VSS Workshop for PhD Students and Postdocs

Strategies for Funding your Research Ideas Around the Globe

Saturday, May 20, 12:45 – 2:15 pm, Sabal/Sawgrass

Moderator: Krystel Huxlin, University of Rochester, USA
Panelists: Reuben Rideaux, University of Sydney; Martin Rolfs, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Miriam Spering, University of British Columbia;

Success in obtaining grant funding for your research ideas is a hallmark of success in academia, and increasingly, in private industry. This workshop features panelists who will provide perspectives on strategies to attain funding success. Topics will include: what constitutes a fundable research idea, opportunities and strategies for developing grantsmanship as a graduate student or postdoc – including those pertinent to diversity, how granting opportunities differ in different countries, how grants are evaluated by granting agencies, and best practices for reacting and responding to grant evaluations in a manner that ultimately leads to funding success.

Reuben Rideaux

University of Sydney

Reuben Rideaux is an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Sydney, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute. Prior to this, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a PhD student at the Australian National University. He combines computational modelling, neuroimaging, and psychophysics to study perception and cognition. He has a particular interest in developing new methods for understanding brain function, such as bio-inspired explainable AI, high resolution functional MR spectroscopy, and neural decoding. He leads the ECR subcommittee of the Australian Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and regularly speaks about his work to research groups, clinicians, and the media. In addition to supervision of graduate and postgraduate students, he enjoys participating in public outreach activities aimed at communicating the importance sensory and cognitive neuroscience research to the public, e.g., Cambridge BrainFest, and encouraging school students consider a career in neuroscience research, e.g., BrainBee.

Martin Rolfs

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Martin Rolfs heads the Active Perception and Cognition lab at the Department of Psychology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He obtained his PhD from the University of Potsdam in 2007, for which he received the Heinz Heckhausen Award, and was a postdoc at Université Paris Descartes and a Marie Curie fellow at New York University and Aix-Marseille Université. In 2012, he established a junior research group at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience before, he was appointed Heisenberg Professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2018. His research is funded by the German Research foundation (DFG) and the European Research Council (ERC), and he is a core PI at Berlin’s Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence.

Miriam Spering

University of British Columbia

Miriam Spering is Associate Professor in Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She also is Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Education in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. Before moving to Canada, Spering completed her undergraduate (Univ Heidelberg, Diploma in Psychology) and graduate education (Univ Giessen, PhD in Psychology) in Germany and postdoctoral training in the US (NYU, Psychology & Neuroscience). Spering has a notable record of scientific achievements in the vision sciences, with a research focus on eye movements, perception-action interrelations, multisensory integration, and disorders of the sensorimotor system. The recipient of many awards for research and mentorship, she has broad experience in senior academic and research leadership roles, advancing graduate training, interdisciplinarity, and wellbeing, equity, diversity, and inclusivity. Spering is funded by several of the major Canadian funding agencies, and has extensive experience mentoring students to obtain their own fellowship and grant funding.

Krystel Huxlin

University of Rochester

Krystel Huxlin is the James V. Aquavella Professor of Ophthalmology and Associate Chair for Research at the University of Rochester (UR)’s Flaum Eye Institute. She also serves as the Associate Director of UR’s Center for Visual Science and co-Director of its Training program. She is a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program Executive Committee, and an Ombudsperson for graduate students and postdocs at the UR Medical Center. Huxlin earned her bachelors (1991) and doctorate (1994) degrees in Neuroscience at the University of Sydney, Australia. She was an Australian NHMRC C.J. Martin postdoctoral fellow at UR before joining its Ophthalmology faculty (1999). Her work seeks to understand how visual functions can be restored after damage to the visual system, as well as to characterize the properties of, and mechanisms underlying different forms of vision restoration. She holds 10 patents, was the inaugural President of the Rochester SFN Chapter, is an editor at eLife and Journal of Vision, and a member of the VSS Board of Directors.

2023 Accessibility event: How to make accessible scientific presentations

Sunday, May 21, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Blue Heron

Organizers: Doug Addleman, Dartmouth College; Rebecca Hornsey, York Univesity; Takuma Morimoto, University of Giessen
Moderator: Takuma Morimoto, University of Giessen
Speakers: Jordi Asher, University of Essex (in-person); Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (virtual)

Conference presentations are the primary way researchers communicate their new work to other members of the scientific community. To promote effective communication between presenters and their audience, it is important to consider accessibility when preparing conference presentations. The VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee is excited to announce an accessibility event that will focus on two main topics: (1) how we can enhance the accessibility of scientific presentations for individuals with visual impairments, and (2) methods for improving conference accessibility for attendees with visual impairments.

The event will start with introductory presentations from vision scientists with expertise in visual accessibility, followed by group discussions with the audience to consider actions that individual researchers can take to make presentations and conferences more accessible. The event will conclude with a general discussion where people can share their thoughts with all attendees. Our goal for this event is to expand our knowledge on accessibility and inclusivity, with a focus not only on the immediate benefits for visually impaired scientists but also on ways to enhance the accessibility of the overall VSS experience for everyone. The event is open to any VSS attendee.

Jordi M Asher

University of Essex

Jordi M Asher, is a Lecturer at the University of Essex. Her research to date has focussed on understanding the potential of plasticity in the brain and training strategies to help people recover impaired visual fields. She is currently in the process of building and testing an assistive technology for visual field loss.

Walter Wu

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Walter Wu, got his Ph.D. in psychology with a translational sensory science minor at the University of Minnesota. Starting in the fall, he will work at the College of Optometry at The Ohio State University as a provost’s fellow. Walter is also one of the founding members of the International Network of Researchers with Vision Impairment and their Allies (INOVA). Walter’s research focuses on different topics related to the impact of impaired vision on daily activities and the usage of assistive technologies in people with low vision.

Takuma Morimoto

University of Giessen

Takuma Morimoto is currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of Giessen. His research aims to understand mechanisms underpinning stable visual percepts of material properties, such as color and gloss, across vastly different lighting environments. Takuma joined the Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee to help make VSS an even more diverse and inclusive community. He is especially keen to support students and early career researchers with non-traditional pathways to research using his experiences as a first-generation student.

Open Science Workshop on Preregistration for Program

Organizers: Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, University of Lille; Björn Jörges, York University
Moderator: Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, University of Lille
Speakers: William Ngiam, University of Chicago; Janna Wennberg, UC San Diego

Preregistration has been proposed as a tool to accelerate scientific advancement by making scientific results more robust, more reproducible, and more replicable. In this workshop, we will briefly go over the advantages of preregistered studies and the registered report publication format, and then delve deeper into the practicalities of preregistering studies as applied to the Vision Sciences. A range of topics will be discussed, such as proper specification and formalization of hypotheses, predictions, and data analysis pipelines as well as power analyses. There will also be an introduction to how registered reports go beyond preregistration and can help combat publication bias in the literature.

William Ngiam

University of Chicago

William Ngiam is a postdoctoral researcher in the Awh and Vogel Lab at the University of Chicago, studying how learning and experience influence the representation of visual information in memory, and leveraging that to understand the capacity limits of visual working memory. He is an active advocate for reform to improve science – he serves on the steering committee of ReproducibiliTea, a grassroots initiative to form Open Science communities at academic institutions, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Reproducibility in Neuroscience, a non-profit diamond open access journal. You can follow him on Twitter @will_ngiam.

Janna Wennberg

UC San Diego

Janna Wennberg is a third-year Ph.D student in psychology at UC San Diego. With Dr. John Serences, she uses behavior, fMRI, and computational modeling to investigate how flexible neural codes support visual attention and working memory. She became interested in open science as an undergraduate through her work with Dr. Julia Strand, a speech perception researcher and leader in the open science movement. She realized that open science practices such as preregistration and registered reports have served as valuable training opportunities for her, and she is interested in exploring how scientific reforms can be tools both for improving research and training early career researchers.

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth

University of Lille

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lille and the Icelandic Vision Lab. Before that, she obtained her Ph.D. from the Université Paris Descartes. She is interested in the mechanisms used to represent information in visual memory. For that, she investigates probabilistic representations of visual ensembles, visual priming and perceptual biases such as serial dependence. Beyond that, and as a member of the SPC, she is passionate about discussing Open Science particular for Early Career Researchers. Contact Sabrina at or on Twitter: @SHansmann_Roth

Connect With Industry

Saturday, May 14, 2022, 12:45 – 2:15 pm EDT, Horizons

Refreshments and snacks will be available

To reflect the range of interests and career goals of VSS attendees, we are pleased to offer our popular ‘Connect with Industry’ event at VSS 2022. This is an opportunity for our members to interact with representatives of industry and government agencies.

Representatives from companies including Apple, Exponent, Magic Leap, Meta and VPixx will be present to discuss opportunities for vision scientists in their companies and to answer questions about collaborating with, and working within, their organizations.

Two 45-minute sessions will be scheduled (12:45 – 1:30 pm and 1:30 – 2:15 pm). Drop in for one, or stay for both time slots. Representatives will present an introduction to their company/agency at the start of both sessions (12:45 and 1:30 pm).

No sign-ups are required. Although light snacks will be served, please feel free to bring your brown bag lunch to enjoy during the event.

All VSS attendees are welcome.

2022 US Funding Workshop

Thursday, June 2, 2022, 3:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Zoom Session

Moderator: Geoffrey Boynton, University of Washington
Discussants: Houmam Araj, National Eye Institute (NIH); Todd Horowitz, National Cancer Institute; Michael Hout, National Science Foundation; and Cheri Wiggs, National Eye Institute (NIH)

You have a great research idea, but you need money to make it happen. You need to write a grant. This workshop will address various funding mechanisms for vision research. Our panelists will discuss their organization’s interests and priorities, and give insight into the inner workings of their extramural research programs. There will be time for your questions.

Houmam Araj

National Eye Institute (NIH)

Houmam Araj., has been with the NIH for over 20 years. He is currently Director of the Lens and Cataract Program; the Oculomotor Systems and Neuro-Ophthalmology Program; the Ocular Pain Program; and the Conference Grants at the National Eye Institute. Dr. Araj is also NEI point of contact for the Diversity/Disability and Re-Entry supplements, and since 2009, he has also been the NEI representative on the CCRP/CounterACT (Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats) Initiative. Over an 18-month period Dr. Araj led the NEI SAVP Program. Prior to becoming Program Director, Houmam served as Scientific Review Officer for ten years: 5 years at the NEI, and 5 years before that at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Among Houmam’s professional activities, and over a 5-year period, he co-led the NIH Common-Fund Transformative High-Resolution Cryoelectron Microscopy (CryoEM) Program as part of the inaugural coordinating committee. He also organized the Ocular Health Subgroup of the Indoor Air Pollution workshop and co-organized the Trans-Agency Scientific Meeting on Developing Medical Countermeasures to Treat the Acute and Chronic Effects of Ocular Chemical Toxicity. Prior to joining NIH, Houmam did a postdoc in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Todd Horowitz

National Cancer Institute

Todd Horowitz, Ph.D., is a Program Director in the Behavioral Research Program’s (BRP) Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch (BBPSB), located in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Horowitz earned his doctorate in Cognitive Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1995. Prior to joining NCI, he was Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Visual Attention Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed research papers in vision science and cognitive psychology. His research interests include attention, perception, medical image interpretation, cancer-related cognitive impairments, sleep, and circadian rhythms.

Michael Hout

National Science Foundation

Michael Hout, Ph.D., is a Program Director for Perception, Action, and Cognition in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate (in the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences division) of the National Science Foundation. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh and his masters and doctoral degrees from Arizona State University. He is a rotating Program Director on professional leave from New Mexico State University where he runs a lab in the Psychology Department and co-directs an interdisciplinary virtual and augmented reality lab as well. Prior to joining the NSF he was a conference organizer for the Object Perception, Attention, and Memory meeting and was an Associate Editor at Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. His research focuses primarily on visual cognition (including visual search, attention, and eye movements), spanning both basic theoretical research and applied scenarios such as professional medical/security screening, and search and rescue.

Cheri Wiggs

National Eye Institute (NIH)

Cheri Wiggs, Ph.D., serves as a Program Director at the National Eye Institute (of the National Institutes of Health). She oversees extramural funding through three programs — Perception & Psychophysics, Myopia & Refractive Errors, and Low Vision & Blindness Rehabilitation. She received her PhD from Georgetown University in 1991 and came to the NIH as a researcher in the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition. She made her jump to the administrative side of science in 1998 as a Scientific Review Officer. She currently represents the NEI on several trans-NIH coordinating committees (including BRAIN, Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, Medical Rehabilitation Research) and was appointed to the NEI Director’s Audacious Goals Initiative Working Group.

Geoffrey Boynton

University of Washington

Geoffrey Boyton 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.

2022 Open Science Workshop on Preregistration

Sunday, May 15, 2022, 12:45 – 2:15 pm EDT, Jasmine/Palm

William Ngiam

University of Chicago

Janna Wennberg

UC San Diego

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth

University of Lille

2022 Accessibility in Vision Science: A Roundtable Discussion

Wednesday, June 1, 2022, 2:30 – 4:00 pm EDT, Zoom Session

Organizers: Takuma Morimoto, University of Oxford; Doug Addleman, Dartmouth College
Moderator: Doug Addleman, Dartmouth College
Speakers: Blaire Dube, The Ohio State University; Masataka Sawayama, Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest; Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Promoting diversity and inclusion is a key consideration in building a strong scientific community. This year’s event will focus on accessibility in the vision science community for three groups: (i) researchers with sensory loss and other disabilities, (ii) first-generation students, and (iii) non-native English speakers. We will discuss barriers that underrepresented researchers might experience and seek potential solutions to mitigate or eliminate those barriers. Introductory presentations from panelists will be followed by small group discussion in breakout rooms. There will be a concluding roundtable discussion with the panelists about the problems and insights brought up in these smaller groups. Through this event, we seek to raise awareness of these issues and help VSS as a society and individual members to improve accessibility in their scientific communities. This event addresses the concerns of early career researchers but should be of interest to researchers at all career stages.

Blaire Dube

The Ohio State University

Blaire Dube, is a 3rd year Postdoctoral Fellow in Julie Golomb’s lab at The Ohio State University. She studies interactions between visual attention and visual working memory during goal-driven behavior using behavioral, eye-tracking, computational modeling, and fMRI methods. She is also a previous OPAM organizer and is passionate about supporting early-career researchers and increasing accessibility in her scientific communities. Blaire is a first-generation academic with perspectives on hidden curriculum and barriers inherent in academia.

Masataka Sawayama

Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest

Masataka Sawayama, is a postdoctoral researcher at INRIA, France. During his career, he has mainly focused on understanding functional mechanisms underlying the perception of object attributes such as material, color, texture, or shape. He has recently engaged in integrating vision science and machine learning methodologies to contribute to scientific advances in both research areas. He grew up in Japan and received his Ph.D. from Chiba University in Japan. He moved to INRIA to pursue his postdoctoral research. Contact Masataka at

Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu is currently a Psychology Ph.D. candidate with a Translational Sensory Science minor at the University of Minnesota. Walter is also one of the founding members of the International Network of Researchers with Vision Impairment and their Allies (INOVA). Walter’s research focuses on different topics related to the impact of impaired vision on daily activities, and the usage of assistive technologies in people with low vision.

Doug Addleman

Dartmouth College

Doug Addleman is a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College, before which he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. He studies selective attention, focusing on experience-driven attention, attention in multiple modalities, and the effects of vision loss on spatial attention. As a member of the VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee, Doug is committed to advocating for the diverse interests and identities of vision scientists in training.

Non-Academic Careers Panel

Thursday, June 2, 2022, 3:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Zoom Session

Organizers: Geoffrey Boynton, University of Washington and Ruth Rosenholtz, MIT
Moderator: Ruth Rosenholtz, MIT
Speakers: Andrew Watson, Apple; James Hillis, Oculus; Eric Seemiller, Wright Patterson Air Force; Peter April, VPixx Technologies; Oliver Flynn, FDA

So you have a PhD in vision science – now what? What opportunities are available outside of academia? What are the advantages and disadvantages of academic vs. other careers? How do I get a job in industry/government/a startup? How do expectations differ? These questions and more will be addressed in a one-hour session. Panelists will make short presentations, followed by Q&A and an interactive discussion with the audience and panel.

Peter April

CEO, VPixx Technologies

Peter April is CEO of VPixx Technologies. Originally inspired by Isaac Asimov’s portrayal of sentient robots, Mr. April is driven to help neuroscientists better understand the nature of consciousness. VPixx has assembled a unique team of talented scientists and engineers, and together we create the specialized stimulation and data acquisition instruments required by the world’s leading neuroscience researchers.

Oliver Flynn

Vision scientist and regulatory scientist in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Oliver Flynn, Ph.D. (he/him) is a vision scientist and medical device reviewer in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He earned a Ph.D. from American University in Washington, DC, in 2016, where his research focused on human visual perception of motion and contrast. From 2016 to 2020, he conducted postdoctoral research in the clinic at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland. This research centered on rod-mediated visual function changes in elderly patients with genetic and age-related eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Stargardt disease, and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and their relationship to the structural changes detected by clinicians. At FDA, Dr. Flynn applies his knowledge and experience in visual function testing and clinical trials to regulate ophthalmic devices before and after they enter the U.S. market. He works with multi-disciplinary teams of experts, including engineers, chemists, and clinicians, to ensure that devices are safe and effective for U.S. consumers. These devices include intraocular lens implants, pediatric in-home treatments, and screening tools. He lives in Washington, DC.

James Hillis

Research Scientists, Oculus

Dr. Hillis completed a Ph.D in Vision Science with Dr. Martin Banks at UC Berkeley on cue-integration and 3D shape perception. He worked in academia for the next 10 years: first as a post-post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and then as an assistant Professor at the University of Glasgow. He then moved to industry, first as a color scientist at 3M and then as a research scientist at Meta (previously Oculus research). The latter position has involved developing perceptual quality metrics for AR/VR and research using models of perception and cognition to advance approaches to human-computer interaction. Overall, his research has spanned questions on color and space perception, visual search, spatial sound perception, multi-sensory integration, social interaction and models of higher level cognition for controlling human-computer interaction.

Eric Seemiller

Senior Vision Scientist, Wright Patterson Air Force

Eric Seemiller completed his PhD in vision science at Indiana University. Following postdoctoral studies at Smith-Kettlewell, the University of Texas-Austin, and back at Indiana University, he took a position as the Senior Vision Scientist at the United States Air Force Operational Based Vision Assessment Laboratory (OBVA) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Though the visual environment of airmen has changed dramatically since the early days of the Air Force, many of the vision screening tests have not been updated at all. The overarching goal of the OBVA is to design and implement more relevant, reliable, and usable aeromedical vision screening tests and tools for incoming airmen. This involves both classic visual psychophysics, vision modeling, and the design of visually faithful flight and flying task simulation. OBVA partners with a number of industry and academic labs, along with colleagues in the other service branches. They also operate several state-of-the-art simulators to get at the heart of what aspects of the visual system are most relevant for operational success.

Andrew Watson

Chief Vision Scientist, Apple, Panel Process & Optics

Andrew Watson is the Chief Vision Scientist at Apple in Cupertino, California. He leads the application of vision science to a broad range of Apple technologies, applications, devices and displays.

Dr. Watson was an undergraduate at Columbia University and received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge in England and at Stanford University in California. From 1982 to 2016 he was the Senior Scientist for Vision Research at NASA Ames Research Center in California.

His research focuses on computational models of early vision, including spatial, temporal and motion processing, and application of vision science to imaging technology. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers, and he has seven patents, in areas such as acuity measurement, image compression, video quality, and measurement of display artifacts. He has 20,761 citations and an h-index of 63.

In 2001, Watson founded the Journal of Vision, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for 2001-2013 and 2018-2022.

Dr. Watson is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and a Fellow of the Society for Information Display. He recently served on the Board of Directors of the Vision Sciences Society. He currently serves as the Vice Chair for Vision Science and Human Factors of the International Committee on Display Measurement. In 1990, he received the H. Julian Allen Award from NASA. He is the 2007 recipient of the Otto Schade Award from the Society for Information Display, and the 2008 winner of the Special Recognition Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. In 2016 he received the Holst Award from Philips Research and The Technical University of Eindhoven. In 2011, he received the Presidential Rank Award from the President of the United States.

Ruth Rosenholtz

Principal Research Scientist, MIT

Ruth Rosenholtz has explored a number of non-traditional career paths in vision science. Currently a Principal Research Scientist (read: soft money research faculty) in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she did a postdoc at NASA Ames and worked at Xerox PARC for a number of years as a researcher, then as a manager of a group charged with transitioning image processing-based research into products. She studies a wide range of visual phenomena, as well as applied vision, using a mix of behavioral methods and computational modeling. Her main research topics include attention and visual search; perceptual organization; and peripheral vision.