MBB Academics Committee

Elika Bergelson

elika_bergelson@fas.harvard.edu

John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences

I study how infants learn language from the world around them, and in particular how infants and toddlers learn words. We approach this by studying learners and their environments. Understanding the learner requires probing the early mental...

Gennaro Chierchia

chierch@fas.harvard.edu

Haas Foundations Professor of Linguistics, FAS

Main Interests: Natural language semantics and all of its main interfaces Recent Projects (still unpublished): "The Grammatical View of Scalar Implicatures" with D. Fox and B. Spector "On the role of entailment patterns and scalar implicatures in the...

Kathryn Davidson

kathryndavidson@fas.harvard.edu

Professor of Linguistics

The logic underlying natural language (formal and experimental semantics and pragmatics), language development, sign languages, and bilingualism.

Benjamin de Bivort

debivort@oeb.harvard.edu

Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

The animal kingdom is renown for its behavioral diversity; we use the fruit fly to discover genetic and neural circuit mechanisms underlying behavioral differences between species, strains, and even genetically identical animals.

Yilun Du

ydu@seas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Kathryn Franich

kfranich@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

I study the sound systems of human language both from the perspective of how speech sounds are produced and perceived (phonetics) and the perspective of how they are structured in grammar (phonology). I direct the Phonetics and Phonology Lab (PhonLab)...

Samuel Gershman

gershman@fas.harvard.edu

Professor of Psychology

Gershman's research aims to understand how richly structured knowledge about the environment is acquired and how this knowledge aids adaptive decision making.

Erin Hecht

erin_hecht@fas.harvard.edu

Associate Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology

Hecht's lab’s research asks how brains change in response to selection pressure on behavior, and how brains acquire heritable adaptations for complex, learned behaviors. Comparisons between modern humans and our living primate relatives provide a way to...

Steven E. Hyman

seh@harvard.edu

Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology

Director, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Steven E. Hyman, MD, is Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT where he directs the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. From 2001...

Talia Konkle

talia_konkle@harvard.edu

Professor of Psychology

MBB Director

Talia Konkle's lab uses human functional neuroimaging to explore how representational spaces of the mind are mapped onto the surface of the brain. She focuses on high-level vision: how do we recognize and organize our knowledge about objects, scenes, and...

Christopher Kuzawa

ckuzawa@fas.harvard.edu

Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology

Jeff Lichtman

jlichtman@mcb.harvard.edu

Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Santiago Ramon y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences

I am interested in the mechanisms that underlie synaptic competition between neurons that innervate the same target cell. Such competitive interactions are responsible for sharpening the patterns of neural connections during development and may also be...

Jeffrey Macklis

jeffrey_macklis@harvard.edu

Max and Anne Wien Professor of Life Sciences, Harvard University

Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University

Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School

Our laboratory is directed toward both 1) understanding molecular controls and mechanisms over neuron sub-type development, diversity, axon guidance-circuit formation, and degeneration in the cerebral cortex (e.g. corticospinal motor neurons - CSMN - in...

Venkatesh N. Murthy

vnmurthy@fas.harvard.edu

Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Paul J. Finnegan Family Director, Center for Brain Science

The Murthy group studies the physical, neural and algorithmic basis of olfaction using real-time techniques including psychophysics, physiology, optical microscopy and computation. The mouse is the main model system, but the group is beginning to explore...

Charles Nelson

charles.nelson@childrens.harvard.edu

Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Nelson's research interests are broadly concerned with developmental cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary field that requires expertise in developmental neuroscience and cognitive developmental psychology. His specific interests are concerned with...

Bence Ölveczky

olveczky@fas.harvard.edu

Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

We are interested in understanding the principles and mechanisms used by neural circuits to generate complex, learned behaviors. To this end we use both songbird and rodents, concentrating our efforts on understanding the process of motor sequence...

Elizabeth Phelps

phelps@fas.harvard.edu

Pershing Square Professor of Human Neuroscience

Chair, MBB Academics Committee

The primary inspiration behind Professor Phelps’ research is the observation that emotions color our lives, and even subtle, everyday variations in our emotional experience can alter our thoughts and actions. By uncovering the impact of emotion and affect...

David Silbersweig

dsilbersweig@partners.org

Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Co-Director for Institute for the Neurosciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Harvard Medical School Dean for Academic Programs at Partners HealthCare

Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, HMS

Particular areas of focus are the characterization of fronto-limbic modulation abnormalities across the neuropsychiatric spectrum.

Alison Simmons

asimmons@fas.harvard.edu

Samuel H. Wolcott Professor of Philosophy, FAS

Simmons research interests lie primarily at the intersection of philosophy and psychology. She works on questions about the nature of mind in general, and the nature of sense perception in particular, as they have treated historically from the ancient...

Ashley Thomas

athomas@g.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Ashley Thomas studies what infants, toddlers, and children think about social relationships: how they think and feel about social hierarchy; how they interpret social interactions that involve their caregivers; and how they think about social intimacy.

Naoshige Uchida

uchida@mcb.harvard.edu

Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, FAS

Our laboratory is interested in neuronal mechanisms by which sensory information and memory about previous experiences guide behavior of the animal. Our main questions are: How is odor information coded and processed by an ensemble of neurons? What kinds...

Tomer Ullman

Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology

I’m interested in the development of commonsense reasoning, and using empirical tools to build formal models of children and adults learn new intuitive theories. In particular my work focuses on people’s intuitive physics and intuitive psychology, their...

Lisa Wong

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital

Lisa Wong is Associate Co-Director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wong is a pediatrician, musician, arts advocate, and author. She is a pediatrician at Milton Pediatric Associates and an assistant clinical professor...

Marinka Zitnik

Associate Professor Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School

Zitnik investigates foundations of AI that contribute to the scientific understanding of medicine and therapeutic design, eventually enabling AI to learn and innovate on its own. Marinka Zitnik is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at...