People

Name Job title Department Role Research interests
Hillel Adesnik Associate Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Plasticity, connectivity, and dynamics of neural networks

Scott Baraban Adjunct Professor HWNI Faculty

Translational epilepsy research with a focus on interneurons, genetic forms of epilepsy, zebrafish and drug discovery. 

Helen Bateup Associate Professor Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Molecular basis of synapse and circuit changes associated with epilepsy and autism. 

Diana Bautista Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Molecular mechanisms underlying the sensations of itch, touch and pain. 

Annaliese Beery Associate Professor Neuroscience, Integrative Biology Faculty

Mechanisms supporting affiliative social behavior between peers; neuroendocrinology of complex behavior. 

Eric Betzig Professor Molecular & Cell Biology, Physics Faculty

Development of new tools for imaging and image analysis to enable biological discovery

Sonia Bishop Adjunct Associate Professor HWNI Faculty

Neural basis of attention, emotion and anxiety. Individual differences in cognitive control and emotional responsivity. 

Kristofer Bouchard Adjunct Assistant Professor HWNI Faculty

Functional organization and dynamic coordination of sensorimotor networks underlying learned, skilled behaviors. 

Stephen Brohawn Associate Professor Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Molecular basis of sensory transduction and electrical signaling, especially mechanosensation.

Silvia Bunge Professor HWNI, Psychology Faculty

Neural mechanisms, development and plasticity of higher cognitive functions in humans. 

Anne Collins Associate Professor Psychology Faculty

Computational modeling of human learning, decision-making and executive functions. 

Emily Cooper Assistant Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Computational modeling of visual perception. 

Mark D’Esposito Distinguished Professor HWNI, Psychology Faculty

Neural basis of high-level cognitive processes such as working memory and executive control. 

Yang Dan Professor, Pivotal Life Sciences Chancellor's Chair in Neuroscience Neuroscience Faculty

Neural circuits controlling sleep and mechanisms of executive control. 

Michael DeWeese Professor Neuroscience, Physics Faculty

Neural mechanisms underlying auditory processing and selective attention in the cerebral cortex and artificial neural networks. 

Andrew Dillin Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Genetic and molecular mechanisms regulating aging and aging-related disease. 

Gül Dölen Professor Neuroscience, Psychology Faculty

Psychedelics; Critical Periods; Octopus; Social Behaviors; Evolution; Synaptic Plasticity; Extracellular Matrix; Oxytocin, Stroke; Fragile X; Autism; PTSD; Addiction

David Feinberg Acting Professor Neuroscience Faculty

MRI technology development, mapping columnar and visual circuitry, modeling neurovascular coupling. 

Daniel Feldman Professor, Coates Family Endowed Chair in Neuroscience Neuroscience Faculty

Sensory processing and plasticity in the somatosensory cortex. 

Marla Feller Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Functional development and organization of neural circuits in the retina. 

Yvette Fisher Assistant Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Flexibility of neural circuits for spatial navigation. 

John Flannery Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Gene therapies for inherited retinal degenerations. 

David Foster Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Encoding of spatial memory and navigation toward rewards by neural ensembles in the hippocampus. 

Meng-meng Fu Assistant Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Our lab goal is to understand glial function at the animal, cell, and molecular level in order to elucidate mechanisms of normal development and disease progression.

Jack Gallant Professor, Co-director of the Brain Imaging Center (BIC) Neuroscience Faculty

Identifying cortical maps to discover how the brain represents information about the world and its own mental states. 

Andrea Gomez Assistant Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Instructive cues for neural form and function. 

Corey Goodman Adjunct Professor HWNI Faculty

Translation of biomedical discoveries into therapeutics for human health. 

Patrick Gutteridge Senior Director of Development Berkeley Brain Initiative Staff
Lin He Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Cilia biology, choroid plexus function in cerebrospinal fluid production. 

Ming Hsu Associate Professor Haas School of Business Faculty

Neural basis of economic and consumer decision-making. 

James Hurley Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Structural and biophysical basis of endomembrane mechanisms that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. 

Ehud Isacoff Professor, Evan Rauch Chair in Neuroscience, Director of HWNI, Co-Director of The Weill Neurohub Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Mechanisms of ion channel function, synapse development, plasticity and neural circuit function. 

Richard Ivry Distinguished Professor Neuroscience, Psychology Faculty

Cognition and action, with an emphasis on how people select actions, learn skills, and produce coordinated movements.

William Jagust Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Anatomic, biochemical, and neurochemical bases of brain aging and dementia. 

Na Ji Professor Neuroscience, Physics Faculty

Novel imaging methods to understand the brain. 

Daniela Kaufer Professor Neuroscience, Integrative Biology Faculty

Molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity in response to stress and neurological insults. 

Preeya Khanna Assistant Professor Neuroscience, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences Faculty

Neural basis of dexterous motor skills, neurotechnology for restoring and rehabilitating movement. 

Stanley Klein Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Psychophysical investigation of of visual processing and the role of perceptual learning, attention and binocular interactions.

Bob Knight Professor of the Graduate School Psychology Faculty

 Neural coding underlying goal-directed behavior and development of brain-machine interfaces for motor and language prostheses. 

Richard Kramer Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Novel chemical reagents for non-invasive optical sensing and manipulation of ion channels and synapses.

Lance Kriegsfeld Professor Neuroscience, Psychology Faculty

Brain and endocrine regulation of circadian rhythms

Stephan Lammel Associate Professor Neuroscience Faculty

Midbrain dopamine circuits in reward-based behaviors and pathological changes in addiction, depression and schizophrenia. 

Markita Landry Associate Professor Neuroscience, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Faculty

Exploiting nanomaterials to probe and characterize complex biological systems at the nano-scale; nanosensors for brain chemistry. 

Samantha Lewis Assistant Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Mitochondrial biogenesis, mitochondrial genome inheritance, organelle assembly, DNA replication, cell metabolism, interactions between membrane-bound organelles. 

Lexin Li Professor School of Public Health Faculty

Statistical neuroimaging analysis, brain connectivity analysis, imaging causal inference, multimodal and longitudinal imaging analysis, and imaging tensor regression. 

Zoë Lieberman Administrative Assistant Staff
Chunlei Liu Associate Professor, Co-director of the Brain Imaging Center (BIC) HWNI, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences Faculty

MRI technology development for the study of neural circuits and modulation. 

Ellen Lumpkin Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Understanding force transduction mechanisms that initiate the senses of touch and pain. 

Evan Miller Associate Professor Chemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Development and application of molecular tools for studying neuroscience. 

Bruno Olshausen Professor, Director of the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (RCTN) Neuroscience, Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Computational models of sensory coding and visual perception. 

James Olzmann Associate Professor Molecular & Cell Biology, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology Faculty

Cellular lipid homeostasis, oxidative lipid damage and cell death, neurodegeneration. 

Barbara Peterson Executive Director Staff
Steven Piantadosi Associate Professor, Co-director of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Science (ICBS) Psychology Faculty

Understanding what computational processes support language acquisition, math learning, and general cognition. 

Teresa Puthussery Assistant Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Processing of visual signals in the healthy and diseased retina.

Michael Rapé Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Molecular mechanisms of cell fate decisions in development and disease. 

Austin Roorda Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Development of adaptive optics to track, measure, and correct the eye's imperfections. 

Kaoru Saijo Assistant Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Microglial cell maintenance of homeostasis in the brain and sex dimorphism in diseases. 

David Schaffer Professor Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Faculty

Engineering stem cell and gene therapeutics. 

Randy Schekman Professor Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

Membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion among organelles of the secretory pathway. 

David Schonenberg HWNI Manager Staff
Karthik Shekhar Assistant Professor Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Faculty

Single-cell genomics and statistical inference. 

Michael Silver Professor, Director of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) Neuroscience, Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

 Neurophysiological and neurochemical substrates of human visual perception, attention, and learning. 

Friedrich Sommer Adjunct HWNI Faculty

Theoretical principles of learning and perception

Mark Tanouye Professor Environmental Science, Policy & Management Faculty

Novel genetic approaches to study the causes of epilepsy and other nervous system disorders. 

Rowland Taylor Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

Structure and function of neural circuits in the retina

Frédéric Theunissen Professor, Director of the Neuroscience PhD Program Neuroscience Faculty

Perception of complex sounds.

Doris Tsao Professor, Nan Fung Life Sciences Faculty Scholar Neuroscience Faculty

Understanding how the brain builds a model of the visual world

Matthew Walker Professor Psychology Faculty

The impact of sleep on human health and disease

Joni Wallis Professor, Equity Advisor Neuroscience Faculty

Neuronal mechanisms underlying high-level cognitive and behavioral processes

Kevin Weiner Associate Professor Neuroscience, Psychology Faculty

Models to explain how brain structure and function contribute to measurable behaviors (e.g. face perception)

Noah Whiteman Professor Integrative Biology, Molecular & Cell Biology Faculty

The role of dietary toxins in shaping the evolution of the nervous system and implications for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders

David Whitney Professor Psychology Faculty

Visual perception and attention. 

Linda Wilbrecht Professor Neuroscience, Psychology Faculty
Experience dependent plasticity and the development of circuits involved in value based decision making.
Ke Xu Associate Professor Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Faculty

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy to interrogate cellular processes at the nanoscale.

Michael Yartsev Associate Professor Neuroscience, Bioengineering Faculty

Neural basis of complex spatial and acoustic behaviors. 

Jacob Yates Assistant Professor Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science Faculty

How populations of neurons in cortex encode the visual world, using statistical and machine learning models to understand neural activity and human perception, how information generated by eye movements is utilized by cortical circuits.