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Brian Wandell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Wandell
Stanford neuroscientist Brian Wandell at Arizona State University SciAPP conference, March 7, 2019
NationalityAmerican
AwardsTroland Research Awards
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience, Vision
InstitutionsStanford University

Brian A. Wandell is the Isaac and Madeline Stein Family Professor at Stanford University, where he is Director of the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, and Deputy Director of the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute.[1] He was a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Vision Science.[2]

Research

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His work in visual neuroscience uses both functional MRI and computational modeling to understand the action of the visual portions of the brain. His laboratory has worked to develop methods for identifying and measuring visual field maps in visual cortex. Recently, he and members of the laboratory have measured the reorganization of maps and cortical function following brain injury.

The Wandell lab is also studying human brain development. Specifically, they are measuring the responses in visual cortex of children, aged 8–12, as the children become skilled readers. He and his group are hoping to understand how visual signals and structures must develop to permit rapid, skilled reading. This work includes an array of techniques, including (functional MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), anatomical imaging, and behavioral testing.

Wandell authored the vision science textbook Foundations of Vision.[3] He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.[4]

As Director of the Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, Wandell has been an active advocate for making research data and algorithms available to the wider research community.[5] According to Stanford,[6]

An overall effort of the Wandell lab involves sharing data and computational methods with the broader scientific community. This work, which was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, supports that effort by providing data and a complete implementation of the method through the Stanford Digital Repository and GitHub.

Along with Laurence Maloney, Wandell was awarded the National Academy of Sciences' Troland Research Award in 1987 "For their elegant account of how we preserve the inherent colors of surfaces despite wide variations in illumination, and of Wandell's other fundamental investigations of color vision."[7] In 2008, he received the Edgar D. Tillyer Award from The Optical Society.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Stanford University official biography, accessed March 7, 2019
  2. ^ Movshon, J. Anthony; Wandell, Brian A. (2015). "Introduction". Annual Review of Vision Science. 1. doi:10.1146/annurev-vs-1-111115-100001.
  3. ^ "Seven Stanford faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences". Stanford News Service. May 7, 2003.
  4. ^ "Brian Wandell". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  5. ^ Adams, Amy (November 20, 2014). "A brain-imaging discovery by Stanford scientists resolves a century-old argument". Stanford News. Retrieved March 7, 2019. The idea of sharing data to speed scientific progress is a cause Wandell has championed at the Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, which he directs, and that he has been promoting in his work helping the Stanford Neurosciences Institute plan the computing strategy for its new facility.
  6. ^ Carey, Bjorn (September 10, 2014). "Stanford scientists map white matter connections within the human brain". Stanford News. Retrieved March 7, 2019. Roughly 100 trillion connections between neurons make it possible for the brain to function. Psychology Professor Brian Wandell's group has devised a technique for mapping these connections with greater accuracy than ever before.
  7. ^ "Troland Research Awards". Archived from the original on 2007-06-21.
  8. ^ Edgar D. Tillyer Award. The Optical Society. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
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