WHO WE ARE

SCIENCE AND IMPACT

PARTICIPATE

Nancy Kanwisher

Nancy Kanwisher

Photo courtesy Kent Dayton

  • phone: 617-258-0721
  • fax: 617-258-8654
  • MIT address: 46-4113
  • email: ngk@mit.edu
Meet Nancy Kanwisher

 

Looking into the brain's toolbox
The human brain includes more than 40 different areas devoted to vision. Nancy Kanwisher uses brain imaging and behavioral testing to study how these areas contribute to our perception of the visual world. Her lab has identified several regions of the brain that play specialized roles in the perception of specific categories of visual stimuli such as faces, places, and bodies. Kanwisher is also interested in understanding typical and atypical human brain development. She is heading an ambitious project to explore the origins of autism using new pediatric neuroimaging technologies.
Learn more >

Biography
Nancy Kanwisher is the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a founding member of the McGovern Institute. She joined the MIT faculty in 1997, and prior to that was a faculty member at UCLA and Harvard University. In 1999, she received the National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.