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.

NEUROSCIENCE

William Bechtel, Professor of Philosophy
William Bechtel is a philosopher of science and the mind. He is interested in the cognitive sciences, such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and psychology, investigating visual processing, memory, research techniques, and the evaluation of evidence. More.

Karen Ruth Dobkins, Professor of Psychology
Karen Dobkins concentrates her research on understanding visual perception in terms of underlying neural mechanisms, with an emphasis on the development and plasticity of visual perception. As a means of exploring the link between neural function and visual perception, she focuses particularly on visual motion and color perception. More.

Marta Kutas, Professor 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…

Larry R. Squire, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences
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…

Rick Grush, Associate Professor, Philosophy
Rick Grush does research in theoretical cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy of language, and metaphysics of mind and representation. Grush has written on various topics in philosophy and neuroscience, such as the brain and language, semantics, representation, and cognitive science. More…

Jaime A. Pineda, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science
Jaime Pineda is the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. He is involved in researching the etiology of addiction; the role of monoamines in behavioral arousal; mirror system of the brain; development and application of brain-computer interfaces; as well as orienting, memory and attention. More…

Vilayanur Ramachandran, Professor of Psychology
V.S. Ramachandran is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at UCSD. His early research was on visual perception but he is best known for his work in neurology. He has lectured widely on art, visual perception and the brain, and is the author of book "Phantoms in the Brain" that has been translated into eight languages. More…

Darren M. Schreiber, Assistant Professor, Political Science
Darren Schreiber is credited with conducting the first brain-imaging experiments studying political cognition. He studies the development of political sophistication and its neural correlates. Schreiber has written on the intersection between cognitive neuroscience and political science. He has worked on modeling the emergence of political parties and ideology, with a focus on complexity in political systems. More…

Leon Thal, Professor and Chair, Neurosciences;
director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
Leon Thal is an expert on memory loss, cognitive defects and gene therapy. He 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…

** 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/