Board of Directors

About the Board of Directors

The VSS Board of Directors consists of 9 individuals drawn from our scientific faculty members (regular members), who are ultimately responsible for crafting the scientific programming of the Annual Meeting, implementing and monitoring VSS policies, overseeing our budget, and associated events (workshops, public outreach, trainee-centered educational and career development events, diversity-promoting events) that serve the needs of the VSS membership. They must do so in a fiscally, scientifically, and ethically responsible manner. Among other duties, Board members also serve on sub-committees that oversee selection and awarding of travel grants, satellite events, community outreach, workshops, graphic competitions, and Awards given at the Conference.

Board members are elected in pairs, with scientific expertise and gender among the many criteria weighted for selection in any given year. Individual terms last 4-5 years.

Importantly, one of the two fourth-year members on the Board is asked to serve as President of VSS for one year, with the other fourth-year member serving as Vice President. The President also serves a fifth year as Past President for continuity, so that the Board always has 9 members.

Board members may not give talks at the meeting or participate in symposia during their service (although members of their lab may do so). In addition, Board members cannot submit nominations or letters of support for VSS Awards.

The Board meets monthly on zoom and twice per year in person – once during the Annual Meeting and once in January. Board members’ travel costs and accommodations for the January Board meeting, and accommodations and registration for the annual meeting are paid by VSS.

Also see Board of Directors Election.

2025 Board of Directors

Krystel Huxlin, President

University of Rochester – Website – Term ends May 2026

Krystel Huxlin is the James V. Aquavella Professor and Associate Chair for Research in Ophthalmology, University of Rochester. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Visual Science, co-directs its NEI training program and is a trained Ombudsperson for the University of Rochester Medical Center.

During her PhD with Ann Sefton (1994, Univ. Sydney, Australia), she contrasted neural properties of developing and damaged adult visual systems. As an NHMRC C.J. Martin Postdoctoral Fellow with Bill Merigan, then Tania Pasternak, she studied perceptual consequences of visual cortex damage in animals and humans, before joining the Rochester faculty in 1999. Her ongoing research aims to understand how and what visual functions can be restored after damage to the adult visual system. Krystel holds 8 patents, multiple grants from NEI, NY state and industry, and received the Robert McCormick Special Scholars Award and the Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award from Research to Prevent Blindness for her work. In 2013, she joined the Neurologic Vision Rehabilitation Advisory Committee of the Rochester Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired, and restarted the Rochester Chapter of the Society of Neuroscience, serving as its inaugural president. This Chapter, which unites neuroscience interests locally, is now central to the University’s Neuroscience Graduate Program’s community outreach.

Krystel is passionate about training the next generation of vision scientists and clinician-scientists, from undergraduates to junior faculty. She is a long-standing member of the University of Rochester’s Medical Scientist Training Program and Ophthalmology Residency admission committees, and the Neuroscience Graduate Program Executive Committee. Finally, Krystel looks forward to drawing on her experience organizing conferences and symposium. She was on the Program Committee for the OSA’s Fall Vision Meeting (2014-2019), first as an Advisor, then the Chair of OSA’s Clinical Vision Sciences Technical group. She co-organized multiple symposia at venues ranging from VSS, Rochester’s Center for Visual Science, and the International Neuropsychological Symposium.

Shin’ya Nishida, Vice President

Kyoto University – Website – Term ends May 2025

Shin’ya Nishida is a Professor at the Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan, and Visiting Researcher at NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Japan. He received B.A, M.A., and Ph.D in Psychology from Kyoto University.

Shin’ya’s research focuses on visual motion perception, material perception, time perception, haptics, and multisensory integration. He is also interested in leveraging vision science for innovation of media technologies. He was/is on the editorial boards of Journal of Vision (from 2007), Vision Research (from 2008 to 2017), and Multisensory Research (from 2017). He was President of Vision Society of Japan (from 2014 to 2018), and is Member of Science Council of Japan (from 2017). He served as Rank Prize Lecturer at European Conference on Visual Perception 2017.

Michael Landy, President Elect

New York University – Website – Term ends May 2027

Michael Landy is a Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. He obtained the Ph.D. degree in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1981, working with John Holland. He then worked for George Sperling at NYU for three years as both programmer and postdoc, before becoming faculty in 1984.

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

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

Geoffrey Boynton, Past President

University of Washington – Website – Term ends May 2025

Geoff Boynton is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington and directs the new Human Neuroimaging Center at UW’s College of Arts and Sciences. He has maintained an ongoing interest on the effects of visual attention on behavior and fMRI signals in the human visual cortex.

Other research interests include ensemble encoding, reading and dyslexia, the statistical properties of the fMRI signal, and work on computational models for visual prosthetics.

Dr. Boynton received a PhD in Cognitive Science in 1994 under the supervision of John Foley at U.C. Santa Barbara after obtaining a degree in Mathematics at U.C. San Diego (1987) and a Master’s degree (1989) in Mathematics at U.C. Santa Barbara. He then worked as a postdoc with Dr. David Heeger at Stanford University where he did his early work with fMRI. In 1998 he took a position as a faculty member in Systems Neuroscience at the Salk Institute in La Jolla until 2008 when he joined Ione Fine and Scott Murray to form the venerable Vision and Cognition group in the Psychology Department at the University of Washington.

Dr. Boynton served as an editor for Vision Research from 2005 – 2015, serves an editor for the Journal of Vision from 2007 to the present, and has served as a permanent and adhoc member of various NIH study sections, including CVP. He has a deep interest in mentorship and teaching, and has been a co-organizer of the Cold Spring Harbor summer course on Computational Neuroscience: Vision since 2008. In 2009 he was elected as a member of the Society for Experimental Psychologists.

He has been a regular member of VSS from the beginning and has served as an abstract reviewer, Young Investigator Award panel member, Poster award panel member, and Travel Award panel member.

Anya Hurlbert, Treasurer

Newcastle University – Website – Term ends May 2026

Anya Hurlbert is Professor of Visual Neuroscience and Dean of Advancement at Newcastle University in England. She studied Physics as an undergraduate at Princeton University and Physiology for an MA at Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar.

There she was inspired by the traditional and Marrian approaches to vision and subsequently took up computational vision for her PhD research with Tommy Poggio in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She earned an MD from Harvard Medical School, before doing postdoctoral research as a Wellcome Trust Vision Research Fellow at Oxford University. In 1991, she moved to Newcastle University, where she co-founded the Institute of Neuroscience in 2003, serving as its co-Director until 2014.

Hurlbert’s research focuses on colour perception and its role in visual cognition, with an emphasis on understanding colour constancy through computational models and psychophysics, and the links between colour, illumination and affect. Her research interests in applied areas include digital image processing and lighting, machine learning for biomedical image analysis, and the interplay between vision science and art. She actively promotes public engagement with science, through multiple programmes and exhibitions, and devised an interactive installation at the National Gallery, London, for its 2014 summer exhibition Making Colour.

Hurlbert has substantial experience of conference organising, including stand-alone colour vision conferences, and symposia within ECVP, the British Association Annual Festival of Science, and other conferences. She has regularly attended VSS since its inception, acted as abstract reviewer since 2010, and served twice on the Young Scientist Award Committee. She is former Chair of the Colour Group (GB), member of the Visiting Committee for Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and Scientist Trustee of the National Gallery (London), and currently an editorial board member of Current Biology and Journal of Vision and member of the Scientific Consultative Group of the National Gallery and the Optoelectronics Committee of the Rank Prize Funds.

Richard Krauzlis, Director

National Eye Institute – Website – Term ends May 2027

Rich Krauzlis is a Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research and Chief of the section on Eye Movements and Visual Selection in the National Eye Institute at NIH. Rich is originally from New Jersey (exit 13) and earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from Princeton University and doctorate in Neuroscience from UC San Francisco working with Steve Lisberger.

Rich also holds a Joint Appointment in the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and an Adjunct Professor position at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Rich’s science has focused on eye movements and visual attention, and includes electrophysiological studies of the superior colliculus, cerebellum, basal ganglia and cerebral cortex, psychophysical studies of visual motion perception and visual attention, and computational modeling. His recent work in monkeys and mice has examined the interactions between cortical and subcortical brain regions during visual selective attention and perceptual decision-making.

After postdoctoral training with Fred Miles and Bob Wurtz at the National Eye Institute, he joined the faculty of the Salk Institute in 1997 and returned to the National Eye Institute in 2011.

Rich currently serves on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Vision and Annual Review of Vision Science, is a co-chair for the Gordon Research Conference on Eye Movements, and a member of the VSS Abstract Review Committee; he was also a Senior Editor for Vision Research. He has served on numerous grant review panels, was a member of the Admissions Committee and Executive Committee in the UCSD Neurosciences Department, served as a chair of the International Workshop on Visual Attention, and has authored several review articles on eye movements and visual attention, including the chapter ‘Eye Movements’ in the graduate textbook Fundamental Neuroscience. His work has been recognized through several awards, including McKnight Scholar and Technological Innovation awards.

Martin Rolfs, Director

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Website – Term ends May 2027

Martin Rolfs heads the Active Perception and Cognition lab at the Department of Psychology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Martin’s lab assesses the architecture and plasticity of processes in active vision and cognition, using a broad range of methods including eye tracking, motion tracking, psychophysics, computational modeling, EEG, studies of clinical populations and, most recently, robotics.

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

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

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

Paola Binda, Director

University of Pisa – Website – Term ends May 2028

Following Paola Binda’s graduation from San Raffaele University of Milano, Italy in 2010 (advisor: M. Concetta Morrone), Paola joined the VisCog laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle as postdoctoral fellow to work with Geoff Boynton, Scott Murray, and Ione Fine.

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

MiYoung Kwon, Director

Northeastern University – Website – Term ends May 2028

MiYoung Kwon currently serves as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University (Kwon Lab). She earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive/Biological Psychology with a minor in Statistics from the University of Minnesota in 2010.

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

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

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

2024 AV Order Form

2024 Career Transitions Workshop

Sunday, May 19, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 pm EDT, Snowy Egret

Organizers: Claudia Damiano, University of Toronto and Stephanie Shields, University of Texas at Austin (VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee); Jody Culham (VSS Board of Directors)
Moderator: Claudia Damiano, University of Toronto
Speakers: Robert Geirhos, Google DeepMind; Kim Meier, University of Houston; Joan Ongchoco, University of British Columbia: Woon Ju Park, University of Washington; Jake Whritner, Exponent

Back by popular demand! Following requests to repeat last year’s event, the VSS-SPC is hosting 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.

Robert Geirhos

Research Scientist, Google DeepMind

Robert Geirhos is a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, located in Toronto. He obtained his PhD on comparing human and machine vision from the University of Tübingen and the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems, where he worked with Felix Wichmann, Matthias Bethge and Wieland Brendel. His research has received the ELLIS PhD award and an Outstanding Paper Award at NeurIPS. Inspired by research on human visual perception, Robert aims to develop a better understanding of the hypotheses, biases and assumptions of modern machine vision systems, and to use this understanding to make them more robust, interpretable and reliable. Dr. Geirhos’ website is https://robertgeirhos.com/.

Kim Meier

Assistant Professor, College of Optometry, University of Houston

Kim Meier spent a few years at community college trying out a few things before transferring to Simon Fraser University where she discovered research is fun, and obtained a BA in cognitive science and psychology. She then attended the University of British Columbia where she earned a PhD, and did a postdoc at the University of Washington. Now, she is Assistant Professor in the College of Optometry at the University of Houston. Overall, her work aims to understand how the visual parts of the brain typically develop, how this development is impacted when a person has prolonged atypical visual experience during childhood, and how perceptual abilities change as a function of treatment success. Her research tools include psychophysics, EEG, MRI, and eye-tracking.

Joan Ongchoco

Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia

Joan Ongchoco is an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia and the director of the UBC Perception & Cognition Lab. Before starting her lab, she decided to pursue a postdoctoral research fellowship at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin with Martin Rolfs. Prior to this, she obtained her PhD from Yale University, where she worked primarily with Brian Scholl. Joan is interested in the ways that perception — especially what we *see* — can interact with broader mental life. This includes exploring varieties of ‘everyday hallucinations’ we experience, as well as the consequences of event boundaries (such as doorways) on perception, memory, and decision-making. Her work draws connections across multiple areas and disciplines. She is the recipient of the 2021 William James Prize awarded by the Society of Philosophy and Psychology.

Woon Ju Park

Research Scientist, University of Washington

Woon Ju Park is an incoming Assistant Professor in Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology starting this August. She completed her PhD in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester working with Dr. Duje Tadin. She is currently a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence fellow and Research Scientist in Dr. Ione Fine’s lab at the University of Washington. Woon Ju is particularly interested in understanding how experience and atypical development affect sensory processing. She has studied this in diverse human populations, including children with ASD, older adults, and those with early or late-onset visual impairments. Her current research focuses on understanding the effects of early blindness on the structure and function of the brain. To learn more about Woon Ju’s academic journey and current research, please visit her website.

Jake Whritner

Human Factors Senior Scientist, Exponent

Jake Whritner earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he used human psychophysics to study 3D motion perception. His dissertation work tested the contribution of various depth and motion cues that the human visual system relies on to interact with the dynamic 3D world. At Exponent, Jake extends his expertise to practical applications, such as analyzing human factors related to motor vehicle accidents, warnings, and slip/trip and falls. He also uses mixed methods to assess user behavior to inform product design and risk assessment through surveys, interviews, and user studies.

Claudia Damiano (Moderator)

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Toronto

Claudia Damiano is a Research Associate (senior postdoctoral researcher) at the University of Toronto, working with Dirk Bernhardt-Walther. She previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Leuven, Belgium, working with Johan Wagemans. Broadly, her research aims to understand how visual features impact aesthetic preferences and guide attention. 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.

2024 US Funding Workshop

Sunday, May 19, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Banyan/Citrus

Moderator: Geoffrey Boynton, University of Washington
Discussants: Simon Fischer-Baum, National Science Foundation (NSF); Cheri Wiggs, National Eye Institute (NEI); and Ed Clayton, National Eye Institute (NEI) – Training Division

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.

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.

Simon Fischer-Baum

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Simon Fischer-Baum is a rotating Program Director for the Perception, Action, and Cognition Program at the National Science Foundation and an Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. His portfolio at the NSF includes PAC, Computational Cognition, and cross-directorate neuroscience programs, and his own research focuses on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of our ability to read and write, across different populations and writing systems.

Cheri Wiggs

National Eye Institute (NEI)

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.

Ed Clayton

National Eye Institute (NEI) – Training Division

Dr. Ed Clayton joined the National Eye Institute in July 2023 as a Program Director in the Training Division. He received his BS in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and his PhD in Psychobiology from the University of Virginia. After a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied the role of the locus coeruleus in decision making, he joined the Center for Scientific Review’s Intern Program. After a year he was hired as a Scientific Review Officer in the Integrative, Functional, and Cognitive Neuroscience Integrated Review Group. During his time there, he was the SRO for the Auditory System and Neurobiology of Motivated Behaviors study sections. In 2012, Ed moved on to take the position of Director of Scientific Review at Autism Speaks. In 2013 he was promoted to Senior Director of Strategic Funding and Grants Administration where he oversaw the science funding program, as well as managed the predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowship programs. In 2015 Ed joined the Princeton Neuroscience Institute as their Director of Training and Professional Development. In this position Ed managed the Institute’s T32 program, led NSF and NIH grant workshops, started a monthly alternative career seminar series, served on the admissions committee, and Chaired both the Curriculum and Climate and Inclusion Committees. He also oversaw an NSF REU summer internship program, focused on providing research experiences to students from small colleges and from historically underrepresented groups.

2023 US Funding Workshop

Sunday, May 21, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Jasmine/Palm

Moderator: Geoffrey Boynton, University of Washington
Discussants: Todd Horowitz, National Cancer Institute; Tatiana Pasternak, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH); Betty Tuller, 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.

Todd Horowitz

National Eye Institute (NIH)

Todd Horowitz, 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.

Tatiana Pasternak

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH)

Tatiana Pasternak, is a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS). Since she joined NINDS in 2020, she has been focused on overseeing the review of applications submitted to the BRAIN Initiative, the funding mechanism supported by 10 NIH institutes, including the National Eye Institute. Prior to joining NINDS, she was a tenured Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester with an active research program focused on cortical circuits underlying visual perception and working memory in the primate brain. Throughout her academic career, she has participated in the NIH and NSF peer review, serving as a permanent member on several NIH study sections as well as on many other review panels. As one of the founding members of the Vision Science Society, she has served for several years on its Board of Directors and for two years as its President.

Betty Tuller

National Science Foundation

Betty Tuller, serves as a Director of the Perception, Action and Cognition Program at the National Science Foundation, where she also serves on the management team for programs in Computational Cognition, the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier, the NSF AI Institutes, Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science, and Collaborative Research in Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. Tuller earned her doctorate from the University of Connecticut in 1980, then completed post-doctoral work at Cornell University Medical Center and NYU Medical Center. Prior to joining NSF, she was Professor of Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University.

Cheri Wiggs

National Eye Institute (NIH)

Geoffrey Boynton

University of Washington

2023 Career Transitions Workshop, Part 1: Early Career Panel

Sunday, May 21, 2023, 7:30– 8:30 pm, Jasmine/Palm

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 Workshop for PhD Students and Postdocs

Strategies for Funding your Research Ideas Around the Globe

Saturday, May 20, 2023, 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.

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)

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.