brain and c o gniti ve sciences INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Fall 2002 Volume V; Issue 1 MESSAGE FROM THE Ann comes from a very DEPARTMENT HEAD supportive background. Her MRIGANKA SUR father was an M.D. who studied vestibular systems, but her mother was not able to pursue a professional career because women were discour- aged from doing so. However, her father encouraged her to learn about his research and, at age 14, her parents sent her to the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. At that time, schools in Pensacola, where they were living, required that girls study home economics, not Ann & Mriganka at the National Medal of science. From boarding school, Science dinner Ann receiving the National Medal of Science she went to Harvard, where she from President Bush. The academic year began, as always in majored in Biology. an active department, by welcoming new She was accepted to the academic, as he introduced her to Jim graduate students and new faculty graduate program at MIT twice, Lackner, to whom she has been married members. With 18 incoming graduate because she decided not to since they were MIT graduate students. students, we have one of the largest first- attend the first time. She had Ann is quite sure that Teuber’s insistance year graduate classes ever. New BCS found it very hard to decide that she teach 9.00 with Jim was inten- faculty members are Jim DiCarlo and between medical school and a tional matchmaking. Chris Moore, who have also been graduate program, but once at In her first year at MIT, Ann worked on appointed to the McGovern Institute for MIT, she knew it was right for prism adaptation in the Held lab, then she Brain Research (MIBR), and Carlos Lois, her. Prof. Teuber, the Chairman switched to Walle Nauta’s lab and did her who has also been appointed to the and founder of the Department, Ph.D. work on the anatomy of the visual Picower Center for Learning and Memory influenced Ann beyond the (PCLM). Jim studies mechanisms of continued on p. 6 visual object recognition in alert primates; FALL 2002 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Chris studies cortical dynamics associated Mondays – Brain Lunch with the sense of touch in a range of Tuesdays – Cog Lunch species, including humans; and Carlos uses Wednesdays – Brains & Machines Lecture Series (http://www.ai.mit.edu/ gene manipulation techniques to study the biological bases of behavior, particularly events/talks/brainsMachines/brainsMachines.shtml) birdsong. Each of these new faculty Alternate Thursdays – Plastic Lunch (http://monster.mit.edu/nedivi-lab/ members brings innovative ideas and plasticlunch.html) cutting-edge techniques, and together they Fridays – Departmental Colloquia Followed by tea add strength to the Molecular and Systems areas of our SPECIAL EVENTS: department. Tuesday, November 5, 5:30 - 7:30 at the Peabody Orlando Hotel Florida II Ongoing faculty searches this year include two positions in Cognitive Room. The annual BCS Mixer at the meeting. Science. In addition, we expect to make new appointments in PCLM and MIBR. Thursday, December 12, 3:30 - 6:30 BCS Holiday Party at the MIT Faculty continued on p. 7 Club. PagePage 22 Volume Volume IV; V; IssueIssue1 2 TED GIBSON work is the development of more sophisticated style and grammar checkers. Ted’s work also has implica- tions for people who are recovering language use, and for children learning Ted at the 1984 language or learning to read. Olympics When not in his lab, Ted enjoys cycling, and bikes in from his home in Lynnfield on days that he doesn’t have commitments with his sons (ages 7 and 11), whom he refers to as his major hobby. They enjoy doing “kid stuff” together, as well as swimming in the backyard pool, and playing basketball hood, and he had a parallel interest in and soccer. Ted Gibson comes to us from Canada, computer science and math. However, it Rowing had been a big part of his where he received his undergraduate was not until he took a course in artificial life until he injured his back last year. degree in math and computer science from intelligence in his final year as an undergradu- He is beginning to resume this activity Queens University in Kingston. This was ate, when he was introduced to natural and eventually plans to participate in followed by an M.Phil. in computer language processing, that his interests the Head of the Charles regatta again, speech and language processing in the merged. which he had done annually a few years EECS department of Cambridge Univer- He is now working on determining how prior to his injury. He also rowed for sity, and a Ph.D. in computational people understand and produce sentences: the Canadian Olympic team in 1984, linguistics from Carnegie Mellon. Ted what sources of information make them easy and as an undergraduate, he was then spent one year as a postdoc in BCS, or hard to comprehend and produce. He and foremost a rower and “went to school and returned to CMU for a year as an his lab test their hypotheses on the process- on the side.” Assistant Professor, before he was ing of unambiguous and ambiguous sentence Watch out if he invites you to join persuaded to return to MIT as a member constructions in a variety of languages, his lab on a hike. He takes his group up of our faculty. He received tenure two including English, Spanish, Chinese, through the New Hampshire mountains. years ago. Japanese, Russian and Korean. A particular Some like it, while others liken it to a Ted was always interested in language. interest has been resource use and syntactic death march. The “easy” hikes are 10 He had an affinity for grammar and structure: some structures require more miles, including 3000 feet up and down. language after reading a lot in his child- working memory resources to comprehend The harder ones are 15 to 20 miles long, and produce. A practical application of this often with 4000 to 6000 feet of vertical climb. JAMES DICARLO teacher, but always planned to be a Jim sought the best of both worlds and doctor — “a nice, safe career.” [So applied to MD/PhD programs, ending much for youthful expectations.] In up at Johns Hopkins Medical School high school, he enjoyed math and and Department of Biomedical science, and was attracted to the Engineering. His goal was to be a quantitative nature of biomedical doctor who also did brain research. In engineering. At the time (1986), there graduate school, he decided that the best were not many programs in biomedical way to understand how the brain works engineering, but Northwestern had one at a computational level was by of the best, which is why he chose to go working in systems neuroscience — there. He was still planning on studying the neuronal properties that attending medical school, but, during his directly underlie complex behavior. He junior year, became involved in neural decided to work in the lab of Ken network modeling of the role of the Johnson because of the lab’s strong hippocampus in classical conditioning. quantitative approach, and he focused The idea of building artificial brains had on the primary somatosensory system, fascinated Jim since using his first studying neuronal mechanisms that Radio Shack TRS-80 computer in underlie tactile form recognition in middle school (he thanks his parents for primates. At the same time, he was Jim & Ren at a Texas triathlon being forward thinking on this pur- doing medical clerkships, which he chase). The research at Northwestern found less intriguing. He particularly Jim, originally from Cleveland, is the kindled this interest. Instead of making didn’t enjoy waking at 5 AM to do son of a NASA physicist and a science a choice between medicine and science, mindless tasks. When he compared the VolumeVolume IV; V; Issue Issue 2 1 PagePage 3 3 life of a doctor with that of a scientist, supports position- size- and clutter- he competed in the Houston marathon (his the latter seemed to be clearly more fun, tolerant visual object recognition. His fourth marathon), but his time is a well- so he opted for a research postdoc rather dream is to eventually apply insights guarded secret. [Actually, he finished in 3 than a medical residency. gained from the real brain to both the hrs. 15 min — not his best effort.] The Inspired by his advisor, Jim became design of machines with human-like visual couple also enjoys backpacking, accompa- deeply interested in the complex neuronal abilities and the construction of brain nied by their Dalmatian, Ren. West mechanisms that must underlie object prosthetics to replace lost visual function Virginia was a favorite place to indulge in recognition. He realized that the key or augment normal function. this hobby, Texas was not ideal, and they problem is to understand how the brain is When not in the lab, Jim and his wife (a are very excited about great locales in New able to extract object identity despite public relations and corporate communica- England. changes in object position, size, pose, tions executive) enjoy running, biking, and and clutter. He was fascinated by work swimming. He has been a runner and in the visual system showing that triathlete for about 15 years. Last January, neurons in the highest visual areas had responses that indicated that they may have solved these problems. Based on his If you would like to be put on the experience working in the somatosensory newsletter mailing list, or have system, he also knew that it was much information you would like to easier to control stimuli in the visual have published, please contact: system. Thus, he joined John Maunsell’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine in Judith Rauchwarger Houston, determined to work on Human Resources problems of object recognition in the Administrator visual cortex of primates. There he began [email protected] three years of studying the responses of neurons in the inferotemporal cortex, the highest level of visual cortex. BCS ALUMNI Part of the reason he was excited to PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH Some relaxing moments on the BCS join the faculty of the MIT Department Denise Heintze Boston Harbor cruise and seminar in of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 2002 Academic Administrator Sept. is the strong computational and cognitive [email protected] components of the department and the institute. He deeply believes that an FACULTY HONORS AND AWARDS understanding of how the brain performs object recognition will require a computa- Emilio Bizzi Named Institute Professor tional framework. For the immediate future his research goal is to form a group Lera Boroditsky Searle Scholars Award focused on deepening our understanding Surdna Foundation Research Award of how the primate inferotemporal cortex James DiCarlo 2002 Pew Scholar Award in the Biomedical Sciences 2002 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow Ann Graybiel James Rhyne Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award SPECIAL NOTES from MIT Andrea Hatch, Administrative Robert S. Dow Award for Physiology, 2002 Officer, was selected to receive National Medal of Science 2002 the 2002 Spring Infinite Mile Nancy Kanwisher 2002 MacVicar Faculty Fellow Award. Carlos Lois Named Edward J. Poitras Assistant Professor ------Steven Pinker Designated a Humanist Laureate by the Interna tional Academy of Humanism. Prof. Emeritus Richard Held Tomaso Poggio Named Eugene McDermott Professor of Brain celebrated his 80th birthday on Sciences and Human Behavior 10/10/02. He is currently Morgan Sheng Elected President of the Society of Chinese Neuro Director of Research at the New scientists of America England College of Optometry. Mriganka Sur Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of ------Technology, Kanpur Prof. Edward Adelson and Ruth Fellow, Research Program Rosenholtz were married on 8/8/ Matthew Wilson 2002 Picower Scholar Award 02. Richard Wurtman Smithies Lecturer, Oxford University, May 2002 Page 4 Volume V; Issue 1 FACULTY RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS Peter Schiller’s lab has studied the role into what makes intelligent behavior. This receptors (an important postsynaptic of cortical inhibitory circuits in target may lead to therapies that alleviate neurotransmitter receptor) in neurons. selection with visually guided saccadic eye cognitive deficits in humans, or changes in The focus of Guosong Liu’s lab is to movements, by applying minute quanti- the way mathematics is taught to children. identify the principles that guide the ties of GABA agonists and antagonists to Tomaso Poggio and graduate student formation of functional neural circuits. selected brain areas. They found that Tony Ezzat have simulated mouth Recently, his lab discovered that the inhibitory circuits play a central role in movements that look so real that most excitatory/inhibitory synapse ratio in a visual analysis in the striate cortex and in viewers cannot tell that the person is not single dendritic tree is always conserved controlling visually guided eye-movements actually speaking the words. This work and the total amount of excitatory in the frontal eye fields. These results could improve the man-machine interface synaptic inputs per dendritic branch is suggest that the generation of each by putting a “real” face on computer scaled according to the surface area of the saccadic eye movement requires not only avatars. This would have applications in tree. This led them to propose a new rule that excitatory signals be sent to the business, entertainment (redubbing films to that governs the organization of synaptic brainstem oculomotor centers, but also eliminate subtitles), speech therapy, and in inputs on a dendritic tree. that inhibitory circuits be inactivated. teaching foreign languages through a Ken Wexler’s Test of Grammatical Mriganka Sur’s lab discovered a new computerized tutor. Impairment (TEGI) is the first standard- property of neurons in early visual cortex. Joshua Tenenbaum’s group discov- ized test to select children with Specific We move our eyes several times a second ered an apparently universal scaling law of Language Impairment that has a scientific as we scan a scene, and we tend to similarity comparison, determining how basis, and it is expected that it will be the successively view locations that differ in features of objects or concepts are most viable and accurate way to determine structure and composition from the weighted by people in judging their which children have this syndrome. He previously viewed location. Experiments similarity; improvements to a powerful and grad student Tania Ionin have also by postdoctoral fellow Valentin Dragoi approach to nonlinear dimensionality been working on a model that solves a and Research Scientist Jitendra Sharma reduction that is becoming widely used for long-standing puzzle in second language demonstrated that such scanning improves scientific visualization and pattern analysis acquisition concerning why some visual discrimination, and also the tasks across a number of disciplines; and a structures seem to be easy for second response selectivity of visual cortex novel framework for understanding how language learners and others seem to be neurons. Such rapid plasticity of cortical people use intuitive theories to learn about difficult. In collaboration with researchers responses constitutes a simple form of the meanings of words and the causal at other schools, he has also discovered a learning that continually influences vision. structure of their environment, drawing rich surprising difference across languages in Research in Emilio Bizzi’s lab has generalizations from very limited percep- the development of very simple struc- shown that in the motor areas of the tual evidence. tures, “clitics.” It had been known that 2 monkey’s frontal lobe there is a popula- Morgan Sheng’s lab uncovered three year old French and Italian children often tion of neurons which is selectively specific proteins that control the growth of omitted these, but Wexler’s group found recruited during motor learning. The dendritic spines (specialized postsynaptic that Spanish and Greek speaking children researchers are also studying patients with compartments in brain synapses), and did not. Furthermore, these results follow impaired mobility caused by a stroke revealed the subunit-specific rules that from Wexler’s model of the maturation of affecting the motor areas of the central govern the surface delivery of AMPA children’s grammar. nervous system to assess the feasibility of a remotely supervised, computer-enabled physical therapy device, administered over high-speed telecommunications. Earl Miller’s lab has made key discoveries of the neural basis of the high- level concepts, abstractions and functions that guide intelligent behavior. In trained monkeys, they found neural representa- tions of perceptual categories (“cat” vs. “dog”), abstract rules (“same” vs. “different”), and the numbers 1-5. Together with an understanding of the neural dynamics underlying short-term memory, they determined that the neural properties found in the monkey brain may be very similar or even identical to those that provide the foundation of numerical Pawan Sinha’s Project Prakash will study how well the brain can recover visual abilities in humans. He and postdocs function – such as basic visual skills and object perception -- following extended Andreas Nieder and David Freedman, periods of blindness-induced deprivation. He is conducting his study in India, where hope that the identification of neural he has located a unique population of children across a wide age-spectrum with networks underlying fundamental treatable congenital blindness. Here he is testing a formerly blind child. numerical competence will provide insight Volume V; Issue 1 Page 5

His Psychophysics Laboratory conversion of academic optometry from a ALUMNI NEWS exclusively concentrates on the study profession confined to refractions and Thanks to Prof. Emeritus Dick Held, we of perception, cognition, and action in based on optics and vision science to one have heard from a number of our alumni. humans. They try to bridge the gap which includes a great deal of medicine Some of the updates on their activities are between cognitive and neurosciences. and is largely based on the biological included here, and others will be John Rubin (Ph.D. 1986) is an sciences. appearing in future newsletters. We are Emmy award-winning filmmaker who Steven Kroft (S.B. 1986) graduated hoping this will encourage alumni who turned to documentaries after complet- from the College of Medicine at the Univ. have not yet responded to do so. ing his Ph.D. at MIT in cognitive of Illinois, later taking a position as a science. He is now producer at Rubin hematopathologist and Assistant Donald Pfaff (Ph.D. 1965) is at Tarrant Productions in Waltham, MA. Professor of Pathology at the Univ. of Rockefeller University, where he is His films range from classical natural Texas Southwestern Medical Center in currently head of the Neurobiology and history to science to celebrity-driven Dallas and as medical director of the Behavior Laboratory. His group uses natural history comedy. He wrote, clinical hematology lab at Parkland molecular techniques to analyze (1) how produced, and directed The Body Memorial Hospital. His wife is a the mammalian brain manages specific Changers for the PBS series NATURE, radiologist and they have two young sons. natural behaviors and (2) hormonal and which won the Edgar Dale Award for Amanda Gruber (S.B. 1986) went to genetic influences on generalized brain best informational screenwriting at the medical school following her years at arousal. He was elected Fellow of the 2000 Columbus International Film & MIT. After a Fellowship in Substance American Academy of Arts and Sciences Video Festival. His Animals Behaving Abuse at the Alcohol and Drug Research and member of the National Academy of Badly was the highest-rated film in the Center at McLean, she joined the Sciences. 2001 season of NATURE. Biological Lab there and has been doing Michael Murphy (Ph.D. 1972) did Marvin Chun (Ph.D. 1994) research ever since. She is an Assistant postdoc work in Ethology at the National completed a two-year postdoc at Prof. of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical Zoo, was an Exchange Scientist at the Harvard, went on to Yale as an School and Associate Chief of Substance National Academy in Romania; and a Assistant Professor, and then was Abuse Research as well as Associate Staff Fellow of the NIMH Laboratory of recruited by Vanderbilt University Attending Psychiatrist at McLean’s. She Brain Evolution and Behavior studying where he was appointed as Associate is married and expecting her first child. olfaction and animal behavior, before Professor with tenure in 1999. In Marc Light (S.B. 1988) worked at the returning to his home city of San 1997, he received a New Investigator as a computational Antonio, TX to head a research section Award from Division 3 of the APA for linguist, and then got his Ph.D. in on the behavioral effects of prophylactic a paper he published in JEPHPP. In computer science at the University of and treatment drugs against chemical 2000, the Dept. of Psychology at Rochester, NY. He did postdocs at the warfare agents at the Air Force Research Carnegie Mellon accorded him the Universities of Tuebingen and Stuttgart; Laboratory. He later moved to the Radio Chase Memorial Award given biannu- was a principal scientist at the MITRE Frequency Radiation Branch where he ally to the person they consider to be Corp., and is now assuming a position as was promoted to Chief in 1994. He is the best young cognitive psychologist; Assistant Professor in the Linguistics and also a Senior Member of the IEEE. He’s and in 2002, he received the APA Library and Information Sciences been married for 35 years, and they have Distinguished Scientific Award for Departments at the University of Iowa. a son and daughter. Early Career Contribution to Psychol- Cyrus Shaoul (S.B. 1993) studied William Cooper (Ph.D. 1976) has been ogy in the area of Cognition and psycholinguistics in the dept., but was President of the University of Richmond Learning. employed by software companies once he in Virginia since 1998. He and his wife, Paul Abplanalp (S.B. 1968) is graduated. He recently moved back to the Dr. Clarissa Homes, are the parents of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at US after living in Japan for seven years, two daughters. the College of Optometry, Nova- and is currently working on a project that Shinsuke Shimojo (Ph.D. 1985) is a Southeastern University, Ft. Lauder- deals with web software and user interface Professor at Caltech and an Adjunct dale, FL. He graduated from the New internationalization, in particular, Asian Professor at NTT Communication England College of Optometry in 1977 localization. He is married and has a two- Science Laboratories in Atsugi, Japan. and has played an active role in the year-old son.

Relaxing at the BCS Mixer at the Society for Neuro- science meeting this November. At left: Marlene Wicherski, Earl Miller, and Steve Wise. At right: Richard Hahnloser,Mansuo Hayashi, Jennifer Wang, and Mark Andermann. Page 6 Volume V; Issue 1 STUDENT HONORS AND AWARDS UNDERGRADUATES Amy Meadows ’03 organized a trip for 12 MIT students to Pipestem, West Virginia, where they spent a week converting an old school into a job center where adults can learn computer skills. Sandy Zhang ’03 runs an MIT program called “ReachOut: Teach a Child to Read.” She recruits, trains, and matches MIT tutors with children who need help reading and writing. 50 MIT students are tutoring 70 children ages 5 to 12. Sudeb Dalai ’02 received the Prize, presented to students in recognition of outstanding contributions in promoting high standards of achievement and good citizenship within the MIT community. The following seniors were elected to Phi Beta Kappa: Benjamin Balas, Sanjay Basu, Sudeb Dalai, Julia R. de Kadt, Lianne Habinek, Payal Kohli, Vinod Rao, Hillary Rolls, Brian Theisen, and Urvashi Upadhyay. Benjamin Balas was given the Hans Lukas Teuber Award for outstanding research in the Brain & Cognitive Sciences Sanjay Basu, Hillary Rolls, Brian Theisen, Urvashi Upadhyay, and Vinod Rao received the Brain & Cognitive Sciences Award for outstanding scholarship. Payal Kohli was given the Walle J.H. Nauta Award for Outstanding Research in the Brain & Cognitive Sciences Honorable Mention for Excellence in Research went to: Janice Chen, Elizabeth Rouse, and Andrew Yip Honorable Mention for Excellent Academic Record went to: Sudeb Dalai, Julia deKadt, Lianne Habinek, Monica Linden, and Sondra Miles. The BCS award for Outstanding Scholarship and BCS Contributions went to junior Jennifer Shieh Honorable Mention for Outstanding Academic Record for Juniors went to: Vikash Gilja, Danielle Guez, Naomi Schmelzer, and Sandy Zhang

GRADUATE STUDENTS Roland Fleming won the Hugh Hampton Young Fellowship. Elizabeth Kensinger received the Goodwin Medal in recognition of conspicuously effective teaching. Amy Pooler, Ned Sahin, Rebecca Saxe, Tania Ionin, and Yuri Ostrovsky all received Angus MacDonald Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Mark Histed received the Walle Nauta Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. Ellis Rutledge-Behnke, Elizabeth Kensinger, and Duane Watson all won BCS Awards for Continuing Dedication to Teaching. Toshimasa Sakamoto won the Whitaker Health Science Fellowship. Theresa Feledy was selected to receive a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. Heather Hinds was mistakenly omitted from the previous newsletter’s list of Ph.D. recipients. ------(Graybiel, cont’d from p. 1) system. Eventually she made the major ganglia. Ann said that it was just as Parkinson’s is mimicked in animals, which switch to work on the basal ganglia. The Teuber used to say: whatever you do at are then given L-Dopa, which creates basal ganglia represented a model system the basic level you need to relate to dyskinesias, to see if there is a link. to look at transmitter distributions and behavior. Ann has won awards for her teaching she related these patterns to the input/ Her second line of work involves and her research. This year alone, she was output organization of the basal ganglia. physiology; i.e., recording electrical the recipient of the National Medal of She then started to look at the relation- activity of neurons in the cortex and the Science, the highest award given by the ship between the cortex and the basal basal ganglia. In this case, her lab is to scientists, the James ganglia, which she refers to as its “side- recording mult-iunit activity in mice, rats, Rhyne Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement kick.” Her work followed two lines: 1) and cortical neurons while animals are Award, the highest award given to a MIT She began to look at genes selectively learning habits. They are finding that the faculty member, and most recently the expressed in the basal ganglia, and her lab electrical activity changes dramatically as Robert S. Dow Neuroscience Award.. now has a knockout mouse, and they the animals learn. The activity also Outside of MIT, Ann and her husband have cloned several novel genes. She is changes if the animal forgets or is forced enjoy tennis and cycling in particular, but now finding out what they do. Following to break the habit, and has to relearn it or also yardwork, hiking, classical music this line, they also found that even one learn a new one. (especially Bach), and Celtic music, and shot of an addictive substance turns on This work is also related to the research cooking. Ann is especially grateful for the the genes in the basal ganglia in a pattern she has been doing on Parkinson’s wonderful people in her lab, and she likens that matches the pattern she first ob- disease. The basal ganglia is heavily the group to a family. They celebrate served when she started working on the influenced by dopamine, which is low in birthdays and other occasions together basal ganglia. The genes plug into that Parkinson’s. Scientists have shown that and, this year, she even hosted the pattern of neurotransmitter related to dopamine responds to reward, which is wedding party for one of the lab members. these patterns of behavior in the basal another group of experiments in which Volume V; Issue 1 Page 7 (Sur -- continued from p. 1) will also have space for teaching laborato- to be a focal point for the department. We Planning for the new brain and cognitive ries, a machine shop, and an electronics kicked off the Fall series with a cruise sciences complex to house BCS, PCLM and shop. With 18 faculty laboratories in BCS, around Boston Harbor and a talk by Pawan MIBR has proceeded rapidly in the past six 13 in PCLM and 16 in MIBR, the new Sinha on “The Nature and Acquisition of months. Despite the continued economic complex will finally bring together all BCS Object Representations.” The Colloquium downturn and budget cuts in many areas, faculty under one roof. The appointment of committee is chaired by Peter Schiller, and the Institute remains committed to new faculty members to MIBR and PCLM would welcome suggestions for outside constructing the new complex on the corner has already fueled the growth of BCS, and speakers. of Vassar and Main Streets, across from the more new faculty will be recruited once the An important change in BCS adminis- Stata Center. A model of the complex is complex is ready. Construction is slated to tration is the departure of Andrea Hatch, outside our headquarters office in E25, and start in Spring 2003 and be completed by who has been Administrative Officer of plans for the interior space – labs, offices, Fall 2005. With the synergies provided by BCS since 1989. She came to BCS in 1986, meeting rooms, and common areas – are proximity, the new building will signifi- when the department was reorganized, and close to the final design. There will be cantly shape research and teaching in the has been indispensable ever since. She will three separate but linked buildings to brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. be missed by everyone, and we wish her house the three entities. The BCS building Our Friday Colloquium series continues success in her new role as Assistant Director for Administration in PCLM. WELCOME NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS Sheila Hegarty has been named interim Administrative Officer as we search for a new AO. Bottom Row (L to R): Jinsook Roh, Aaron Andalman, David Nguyen, Terra Barnes. Middle Row: Benjamin Scott, David Cox, Cindy Shih, Monica Linden, Charles Kemp, Evelina Fedorenko, Mara Breen. Top Row: Tom Griffiths, Alexander Rivest, Thomas Davidson, Christopher Hirsch, Benjamin Balas, Rebecca Schwarzlose, Timothy Buschman. Not photographed: Safa Sadeghpour.

Since graduating in 1999, he has worked Aaron Andalman, born in Mississippi, statistics and more molecular neuro- in visual neuroscience and neuronal schooled in Washington D.C., and a science. Her hobbies include kayaking, apoptosis labs, for the Let’s Go travel computer science major at Stanford, did a traveling, and knitting. guides, and for an electronic publishing postgraduate internship at the Palo Alto Mara Breen is originally from Con- startup. At MIT, Tom plans to study Research Center (PARC), where he necticut and graduated from the School systems neuroscience and to keep up discovered his interest in the brain. Now, of Cognitive Science at Hampshire with developments in genetics and AI. He 3 years later, he will focus on computa- College. She plans to study language even finds time for hiking, sailing, tional neuroscience, particularly compu- processing at MIT. She loves Hollywood snowboarding, reading and travel. tational vision. He would like to be an blockbusters, mountain biking, and Evelina Fedorenko is from Volgograd, academic working to solve the mysteries cooking. Russia. She did her undergraduate work of the brain while occasionally winning Tim Buschman grew up in Baltimore, at Harvard, but came to MIT to study teacher of the year awards. He divides his MD and attended Caltech as an under- sentence processing in Ted Gibson’s lab. spare time among drawing, basketball, graduate. After taking a year off to study She would like to have a career in tennis, and hip-hop dancing. He hopes to attention at the NIH, he is excited to be academia. Her hobbies are tennis and add tap dance to his list of hobbies, and joining Earl Miller’s lab to investigate the reading. already has the shoes. prefrontal activity and the temporal Tom Griffiths an avid fencer from Perth, Ben Balas was born in Pittsburgh, PA, dynamics of neural activity. When not Western Australia, ”which is apparently “but turned out all right anyhow.” He spent working in neuroscience, he enjoys the most isolated Western city on Earth.” the past four years at MIT, and will be being a newlywed. He received a Bachelor’s degree in working in Pawan Sinha’s lab, studying David Cox grew up in central MA and psychology from the University of Western face and object recognition. When not at graduated from Harvard with a degree in Australia, and started a PhD at Stanford work, Ben performs improv comedy in the biology and psychology. After graduating, University, where he worked with Josh Cambridge and Boston area, most he spent two years playing around with Tenenbaum. Tom will spend the next recently with MIT’s own Roadkill Buffet. fMRI at MGH before coming to MIT to couple of years here as an exchange Terra Barnes grew up in St. Louis, study object recognition, especially student, so they can continue to work Missouri, went to school at the University using electrophysiological techniques. together. His main interest is in how of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and was in He is an avid pianist and enjoys cross- statistical concepts can help to explain Costa Rica before coming to MIT. She’s country skiing when the weather permits. the human capacity for easily solving interested in the neuronal substrates of Tom Davidson is a native of certain difficult inductive problems, like learning and memory, and would like to Vancouver, Canada and received his BA learning the causal structure of the world be a professor. She hopes to learn more in the history of science from Harvard. or the probabilistic structure of language. Page 8 Volume V, Issue 1 Christopher Hirsch, finished a double classifications algorithms in tandem, the involves such processes as eloquence major at UC Berkeley in linguistics and investigation of the role of the rat development, learning how to apply cognitive science. He’s come to MIT to hippocampus in spatial information knowledge to solve social problems, study neurolinguistics and his particular consolidation during sleep, and investi- and learning how to learn. interest is in the neuralALUMNI mechanisms gation NEWS of what makes a place cell a Rebecca Schwarzlose is originally underlying syntactic and semantic place cell. He also enjoys fishing, from the Chicago area and attended processing. He’ll be hanging out in the hiking, beach volleyball, and snow Northwestern University as an under- Wexler and Gibson labs. Things that skiing. David’s long term goal is to graduate. Her background is grounded make him smile: SF indie pop, cross- discover new avenues for investigation. in psychology, cognitive science, and word puzzles, table tennis, and all things Alexander Rivest grew up in Arlington linguistics, but she’s particularly nerdy. He’s putting together a vegetarian Mass, but went west to UCSB for his interested in diving into systems and and seafood cookbook using only undergraduate degree in Cell and cellular/molecular neuroscience as a original recipes from friends and rela- Developmental Biology. He is interested graduate student. Her long-range plans tives (so feel free to send some to in neurogenesis and memory on a are centered around conducting basic [email protected]). His greatest fear is his molecular level. His long-term goals are research with clinical relevance for first NE winter, so he “prays nightly for to get his PhD; after that, who knows. psychiatric and neurological disorders. global warming.” He is interested in traveling and seeing Ben Scott claims to have been raised Charles Kemp grew up in Sydney, the world, and climbed Kilimanjaro this in NH by banditos. He received his Australia, and attended the University of summer and spent time with some of undergraduate degree from the Univer- Melbourne, where he developed an his Masai friends in southern Kenya. sity of Chicago. His academic interests interest in computational models of Jinsook Roh is from Korea, where include physiology and behavior; learning and perception. Charles will be she majored in physics at Ewha especially new interpretations of classic joining Josh Tenenbaum’s group. He Womans University. Her goal is to behaviors and new techniques to study enjoys playing keyboards and writing understand higher order cognitive physiology. Ben is also interested in music, and performed with several choirs functions, such as self-awareness, and medically and socially applicable and bands in his home city. make the world better. Her paramount biology. His non-academic interests Monica Linden from Ft. Lauderdale, FL interests nowadays are motor control include literature, cowboy movies, got her undergraduate degrees in Math and motor learning. To do that, she hunting, and mountaineering. with CS and BCS at MIT. She’s inter- hopes to combine physiology and Cindy H. Shih, born in Taipei, Taiwan, ested in Learning and Memory and mathematical modeling. Taekwondo, all immigrated to the US at age six. She Computational Neuroscience, and hopes kinds of concertos and Christianity are grew up in L.A. and received her B.Sc in to become a research professor. Her her particular interests. Organismic Biology, Ecology, and hobbies include enjoying good restau- Safa Sadeghpour was born in Persia Evolution from UCLA in 2001. She spent rants, movies, travelling and talking but raised primarily in Ecuador and a part of her undergraduate years in the online to friends. She can’t think of ways Chile. He has a BS in Neuroscience Sonoran Desert studying the distribu- the dept/MIT can help that they aren’t and Cybernetics from UCLA, and is tion and behavior of gray-breasted jays, already doing. currently also an M.D. student at and a summer studying the genetics of David P. Nguyen of Methuen, MA Harvard. He’s a Baha’i as well, and his behavior and aging in fruit flies. Her received a B.S. in E.E. from Boston long-term plans are to gain a sense of prime interest is in elucidating how University and an M.S.E.C.E. from the spiritual pulse of America, do solid, memory is formed and maintained in Georgia Tech. His interests include the but socially-relevant research, and the brain. She loves to discuss behav- development of innovative multi-electrode revolutionize the soul of the planet. He is ior, evolutionary relationships, and recording technologies and spike leading a small youth workshop that theories about sleep. Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology NON PROFIT ORG. E25-406 U.S. POSTAGE Cambridge MA 02139 PAID Cambridge, MA Permit No. 54016