“What do I like best about Iowa? The down-to-earth and well-respected faculty, the beautiful rivers for kayaking and exploring, nice hiking trails, great music, theater, dance, and art venues.”
My current research interests are in perception and attention broadly, with an emphasis on the mechanisms of visual perception, visual attention, and working-memory. More specifically, I am interested in interactions between early, low-level perceptual processing and later, high-level processes such as attention, working-memory, and action execution. In another line of research, I am part of a project attempting to develop in-vehicle collision avoidance systems for individuals with impaired attention abilities due to aging, brain damage, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. I employ primarily behavioral methods (including simulated environments and computer-based tasks), but supplement behavioral results with neurophysiological data using event-related potentials (ERPs).
The University of Iowa has provided a unique opportunity to gain a multidisciplinary background in cognitive, molecular, and integrative neuroscience. The University of Iowa provides access to resources that are on par with any major research-based university, and there is a great deal of collaboration between the neuroscience department and other, related departments such as psychology, biology, engineering, philosophy, and computer science. This multidisciplinary approach to the study of the brain has allowed me to develop an understanding brain function and dysfunction at multiple levels. In addition, the city of Iowa City has many of the amenities of a larger city, such as diversity and easy access to cultural events and entertainment, with a very reasonable cost of living not present in most major cities.
“What do I like best about Iowa? The down-to-earth and well-respected faculty, the beautiful rivers for kayaking and exploring, nice hiking trails, great music, theater, dance, and art venues.”