Our community includes over 70 faculty members from many academic departments who deepen our understanding of the brain and the rest of the nervous system through neurotechnology innovation and original research. Explore the research interests of Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute faculty below, and click on their name for more information.
Name | Job title | Department | Role | Research interests | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hillel Adesnik | Associate Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Plasticity, connectivity, and dynamics of neural networks |
hadesnik@berkeley.edu |
Scott Baraban | Adjunct Professor | HWNI | Faculty |
Translational epilepsy research with a focus on interneurons, genetic forms of epilepsy, zebrafish and drug discovery. |
scott.baraban@ucsf.edu |
Helen Bateup | Associate Professor | Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Molecular basis of synapse and circuit changes associated with epilepsy and autism. |
bateup@berkeley.edu |
Diana Bautista | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Molecular mechanisms underlying the sensations of itch, touch and pain. |
dbautista@berkeley.edu |
Annaliese Beery | Associate Professor | Neuroscience, Integrative Biology | Faculty |
Mechanisms supporting affiliative social behavior between peers; neuroendocrinology of complex behavior. |
abeery@berkeley.edu |
Eric Betzig | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology, Physics | Faculty |
Development of new tools for imaging and image analysis to enable biological discovery |
ebcal@berkeley.edu |
Sonia Bishop | Adjunct Associate Professor | HWNI | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Neural basis of attention, emotion and anxiety. Individual differences in cognitive control and emotional responsivity. |
sbishop@berkeley.edu |
Kristofer Bouchard | Adjunct Assistant Professor | HWNI | Faculty |
Functional organization and dynamic coordination of sensorimotor networks underlying learned, skilled behaviors. |
kebouchard@berkeley.edu |
Stephen Brohawn | Associate Professor | Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Molecular basis of sensory transduction and electrical signaling, especially mechanosensation. |
brohawn@berkeley.edu |
Silvia Bunge | Professor | HWNI, Psychology | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Neural mechanisms, development and plasticity of higher cognitive functions in humans. |
sbunge@berkeley.edu |
Anne Collins | Associate Professor | Psychology | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Computational modeling of human learning, decision-making and executive functions. |
annecollins@berkeley.edu |
Emily Cooper | Assistant Professor | Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Computational modeling of visual perception. |
emilycooper@berkeley.edu |
Mark D’Esposito | Distinguished Professor | HWNI, Psychology | Faculty |
Neural basis of high-level cognitive processes such as working memory and executive control. |
despo@berkeley.edu |
Yang Dan | Professor, Pivotal Life Sciences Chancellor's Chair in Neuroscience | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Neural circuits controlling sleep and mechanisms of executive control. |
ydan@berkeley.edu |
Michael DeWeese | Professor | Neuroscience, Physics | Faculty |
Neural mechanisms underlying auditory processing and selective attention in the cerebral cortex and artificial neural networks. |
deweese@berkeley.edu |
Andrew Dillin | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Genetic and molecular mechanisms regulating aging and aging-related disease. |
dillin@berkeley.edu |
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. |
david.feinberg@berkeley.edu |
Daniel Feldman | Professor, Coates Family Endowed Chair in Neuroscience | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Sensory processing and plasticity in the somatosensory cortex. |
dfeldman@berkeley.edu |
Marla Feller | Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Functional development and organization of neural circuits in the retina. |
mfeller@berkeley.edu |
Yvette Fisher | Assistant Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Flexibility of neural circuits for spatial navigation. |
yfisher@berkeley.edu |
John Flannery | Professor | Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty |
Gene therapies for inherited retinal degenerations. |
flannery@berkeley.edu |
David Foster | Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Encoding of spatial memory and navigation toward rewards by neural ensembles in the hippocampus. |
davidfoster@berkeley.edu |
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. |
mengmengfu@berkeley.edu |
Jack Gallant | Professor, Co-director of the Brain Imaging Center (BIC) | Neuroscience | Faculty, ICBS Members, Resilience |
Identifying cortical maps to discover how the brain represents information about the world and its own mental states. |
gallant@berkeley.edu |
Andrea Gomez | Assistant Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Instructive cues for neural form and function. |
gomez@berkeley.edu |
Corey Goodman | Adjunct Professor | HWNI | Faculty |
Translation of biomedical discoveries into therapeutics for human health. |
|
Lin He | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Cilia biology, choroid plexus function in cerebrospinal fluid production. |
lhe@berkeley.edu |
Ming Hsu | Professor | Haas School of Business | Faculty |
Neural basis of economic and consumer decision-making. |
mhsu@haas.berkeley.edu |
James Hurley | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Structural and biophysical basis of endomembrane mechanisms that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. |
jimhurley@berkeley.edu |
Ehud Isacoff | Professor, Evan Rauch Chair in Neuroscience, Director of HWNI, Co-Director of The Weill Neurohub | Neuroscience, Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty, Resilience |
Mechanisms of ion channel function, synapse development, plasticity and neural circuit function. |
ehud@berkeley.edu |
Richard Ivry | Distinguished Professor | Neuroscience, Psychology | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Cognition and action, with an emphasis on how people select actions, learn skills, and produce coordinated movements. |
ivry@berkeley.edu |
William Jagust | Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Anatomic, biochemical, and neurochemical bases of brain aging and dementia. |
jagust@berkeley.edu |
Na Ji | Professor | Neuroscience, Physics | Faculty |
Novel imaging methods to understand the brain. |
jina@berkeley.edu |
Daniela Kaufer | Professor, Co-director of the Berkeley Neuro AI Center for the Study of Resilience | Neuroscience, Integrative Biology | Faculty, ICBS Members, Resilience |
Molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity in response to stress and neurological insults. |
danielak@berkeley.edu |
Preeya Khanna | Assistant Professor | Neuroscience, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences | Faculty |
Neural basis of dexterous motor skills, neurotechnology for restoring and rehabilitating movement. |
pkhanna@berkeley.edu |
Stanley Klein | Professor | Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Psychophysical investigation of of visual processing and the role of perceptual learning, attention and binocular interactions. |
sklein@berkeley.edu |
Bob Knight | Professor of the Graduate School | Psychology | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Neural coding underlying goal-directed behavior and development of brain-machine interfaces for motor and language prostheses. |
rtknight@berkeley.edu |
Hedy Kober | Professor | Psychology | Faculty |
Craving, regulation of craving, substance use disorders, treatments for substance use and eating disorders, neural and psychological mechanisms of treatment, emotion regulation, mindfulness, meditation. |
hedy@berkeley.edu |
Richard Kramer | Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Novel chemical reagents for non-invasive optical sensing and manipulation of ion channels and synapses. |
rhkramer@berkeley.edu |
Lance Kriegsfeld | Professor | Neuroscience, Psychology | Faculty, Resilience |
Brain and endocrine regulation of circadian rhythms |
Kriegsfeld@berkeley.edu |
Stephan Lammel | Associate Professor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Midbrain dopamine circuits in reward-based behaviors and pathological changes in addiction, depression and schizophrenia. |
lammel@berkeley.edu |
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. |
landry@berkeley.edu |
Samantha Lewis | Assistant Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Mitochondrial biogenesis, mitochondrial genome inheritance, organelle assembly, DNA replication, cell metabolism, interactions between membrane-bound organelles. |
samlewis@berkeley.edu |
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. |
lexinli@berkeley.edu |
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. |
chunlei.liu@eecs.berkeley.edu |
Ellen Lumpkin | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Understanding force transduction mechanisms that initiate the senses of touch and pain. |
lumpkin@berkeley.edu |
Evan Miller | Associate Professor | Chemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Development and application of molecular tools for studying neuroscience. |
evanwmiller@berkeley.edu |
Bruno Olshausen | Professor, Director of the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (RCTN) | Neuroscience, Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Computational models of sensory coding and visual perception. |
baolshausen@berkeley.edu |
James Olzmann | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology | Faculty |
Cellular lipid homeostasis, oxidative lipid damage and cell death, neurodegeneration. |
olzmann@berkeley.edu |
Steven Piantadosi | Professor, Co-director of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Science (ICBS) | Psychology | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Understanding what computational processes support language acquisition, math learning, and general cognition. |
stp@berkeley.edu |
Teresa Puthussery | Associate Professor | Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty |
Processing of visual signals in the healthy and diseased retina. |
tpu@berkeley.edu |
Michael Rapé | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Molecular mechanisms of cell fate decisions in development and disease. |
mrape@berkeley.edu |
Austin Roorda | Professor | Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty |
Development of adaptive optics to track, measure, and correct the eye's imperfections. |
aroorda@berkeley.edu |
David Schaffer | Professor | Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering | Faculty |
Engineering stem cell and gene therapeutics. |
schaffer@berkeley.edu |
Randy Schekman | Professor | Molecular & Cell Biology | Faculty |
Membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion among organelles of the secretory pathway. |
schekman@berkeley.edu |
Karthik Shekhar | Assistant Professor | Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering | Faculty |
Single-cell genomics and statistical inference. |
kshekhar@berkeley.edu |
Amitai Shenhav | Associate Professor | Psychology | Faculty |
Neuroscience of motivation, decision-making, and cognitive control. |
amitai@berkeley.edu |
Michael Silver | Professor, Director of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) | Neuroscience, Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science | Faculty, ICBS Members |
Neurophysiological and neurochemical substrates of human visual perception, attention, and learning. |
masilver@berkeley.edu |
Friedrich Sommer | Adjunct | HWNI | Faculty |
Theoretical principles of learning and perception |
fsommer@berkeley.edu |
Mark Tanouye | Professor | Environmental Science, Policy & Management | Faculty |
Novel genetic approaches to study the causes of epilepsy and other nervous system disorders. |
tanouye@berkeley.edu |
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. |
theunissen@berkeley.edu |
Doris Tsao | Professor, Nan Fung Life Sciences Faculty Scholar | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Understanding how the brain builds a model of the visual world |
dortsao@berkeley.edu |
Matthew Walker | Professor | Psychology | Faculty |
The impact of sleep on human health and disease |
mpwalker@berkeley.edu |
Joni Wallis | Professor, Equity Advisor | Neuroscience | Faculty |
Neuronal mechanisms underlying high-level cognitive and behavioral processes |
wallis@berkeley.edu |
Kevin Weiner | Associate Professor | Neuroscience, Psychology | Faculty |
Models to explain how brain structure and function contribute to measurable behaviors (e.g. face perception) |
kweiner@berkeley.edu |
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 |
whiteman@berkeley.edu |
David Whitney | Professor | Psychology | Faculty |
Visual perception and attention. |
dwhitney@berkeley.edu |
Linda Wilbrecht | Professor | Neuroscience, Psychology | Faculty |
Experience dependent plasticity and the development of circuits involved in value based decision making. |
wilbrecht@berkeley.edu |
Ke Xu | Associate Professor | Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering | Faculty |
Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy to interrogate cellular processes at the nanoscale. |
xuk@berkeley.edu |
Michael Yartsev | Associate Professor | Neuroscience, Bioengineering | Faculty |
Neural basis of complex spatial and acoustic behaviors. |
myartsev@berkeley.edu |
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. |
yates@berkeley.edu |