2022 Presidential Scholars Announced

May 11, 2022

This July, the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program will welcome its seventh cohort of Presidential Scholars. The two incoming postdoctoral scholars were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants from different backgrounds and fields of research. 

The selection process was a cross-disciplinary effort, with 30 faculty members reviewing applications and interviewing candidates, representing the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Barnard College, Columbia University Medical Center, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia Law School, and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The new Scholars will confirm at least two faculty mentors from different departments who will help guide and support their research projects. The Scholars will also help organize the PSSN Seminars in Society and Neuroscience series.

Proposal Title - What’s Special about Stereo Vision? 

Paul Linton is a neuroscientist and philosopher specializing in 3D vision. He received his PhD in 2021 from the Centre for Applied Vision Research, City University of London, where his research challenged our understanding of distance perception by showing the visual system is unable to triangulate distance using the two eyes. As a Presidential Scholar, Paul will develop his new two-stage theory of 3D vision using the latest techniques in machine learning and fMRI in the hope of explaining how we experience the 3D world. 

Proposal Title - Moving from Flies to Frogs: Understanding Behavior through Lived Experience 

Nedah Nemati is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She researches the role of lived experience in neuroscientific experimentation and the influence of such experience in characterizing behavioral and cognitive concepts. As a Presidential Scholar, Nedah will draw from historical and phenomenological traditions to characterize an account of lived experience in neuroscience and to develop a philosophy and science of behavior in neuroscience. By characterizing the role of lived experience in scientific practices, Nedah’s project aims to impart greater clarity in scientific uses of behavioral concepts and their clinical translation.