Message from Chancellor Fox: One of UCSD’s greatest institutional strengths is the breadth and depth of faculty research on a range of important topics. Each month, Chancellor’s Corner will showcase cross-disciplinary faculty expertise in a specific area. I invite you to learn more about the work of these scholars, and I hope you share my pride in their achievements and their contributions to society.

MEMORY

William Bechtel, Professor of Philosophy
William Bechtel is a philosopher of science and the mind. Bechtel primarily focuses on issues dealing with the historical and contemporary life sciences, specifically that of physiology, biochemistry, and cell biology. Within these disciplines, he investigates how researchers propose, develop, and evaluate models of mechanisms. He is also interested in the cognitive sciences, such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and psychology, investigating visual processing, More…

Leslie J. Carver, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Leslie Carver researches brain correlates of cognitive and social behavior in infancy. She is interested in how individual differences in behavior relate to individual differences in brain development. Currently, Carver is studying the brain systems underlying long-term recall and recognition memory, infant social relationships (e.g., attachment) and how such relationships affect the infants ability to processing of familiar faces, and the use of the emotions of familiar people to guide their behavior in novel situations. More…

Yen Le Espiritu, Professor and Chair, Department of Ethnic Studies
Yen Le Espiritu focuses her research on the challenges traditional descriptions of racial categories, most specifically that of Asian Americans. She specializes in U.S. imperialism and wars, Southeast Asian refugees, and Filipino American history. Currently, Espiritu is interested on the transnational and gendered lives of Filipino immigrants and Filipino Americans. More…

Marta Kutas, Professor, Department of Cognitive Science
and Neurosciences
Marta Kutas is a cognitive neuroscientist who specializes in brain wave patterns and relations between the brain, mind, and behavior. Her research examines how brain wave patterns affect and determine the function of language, perception, memory, and emotions. More…

George Mandler, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology
George Mandler is an expert in the areas of memory, human emotion and consciousness. Mandler is also interested in and knowledgeable about the role of universities in contemporary society. More…

Jean M. Mandler, Research Professor, Department of Cognitive Science
Jean Mandler is a renowned authority on cognitive development in infancy. Her specific areas of interest include concept formation in infancy and the ability of infants to recall the past. She is especially interested in how babies develop concepts that help them navigate their world. According to Mandler, cognitive scientists have gradually come to realize that one of the best ways to understand the complexities of mental processes is to find their origins in infancy and trace them as they develop over time. More…

Esra Ozyurek, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Islam, secularism, modernity, social and cultural memory, nostalgia, Turkey, and Europe. More…

Larry R. Squire, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, UCSD School of Medicine Research Scientist, VA San Diego Healthcare System
Dr. Squire’s pioneering work in human memory helped describe for the first time the role of the hippocampus and surrounding cortex region of the brain in human memory. He has explored fundamental issues such as whether memory is one thing or many, what brain structures are important for memory, and what happens to memory in disease. More…

Leon Thal, Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center;
Professor and Chair, Department of Neurosciences UCSD
An expert on memory loss, cognitive defects and gene therapy, Dr. Thal directs the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials group, an NIH-funded nationwide consortium of more than 80 centers that test experimental therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. Trials conducted through this cooperative study have demonstrated that vitamin E slows memory decline in Alzheimer’s patients and estrogen does not slow dementia in women 62 and older with early-stage Alzheimer’s. Thal has studied the process and effects of gene therapy and is currently looking at whether high-dose vitamin E or the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug, donepezil, can help prevent mild cognitive impairment. More…

Mark Tuszynski, Director, Center for Neural Repair
Dr. Tuszynski is a specialist in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, ALS and spinal cord injury. His team conducted a Phase I clinical trial of gene therapy to reverse memory loss in Alzheimers patients by inserting genetically engineered cells into the brain that produce nerve growth factor (NGF) to prevent cell death. More…

John T. Wixted, Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. John Wixted is an expert in the areas of memory, forgetting, and amnesia. More…

** To learn more about other campus faculty scholars and areas of expertise, please visit the searchable UCSD Faculty Experts Database at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/