Students in our PhD program have the opportunity to work with over 80 faculty located at our Washington Square and Grossman School of Medicine campuses. Below is a list of our core faculty who have research labs at either the Center for Neural Science (CNS) or the Department of Neuroscience. Additional faculty in a variety of departments are also available as potential co-mentors and collaborators. ​

Core Faculty

 *Note that core neuroscience faculty who are actively looking for graduate students for the coming year are marked with an asterisk*
  • Cristina Alberini * , Professor, Center for Neural Science. Molecular mechanisms of long-term memory. 
  • Dora Angelaki, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Circuitry and models of navigation and multi-sensory integration.
  • Chiye Aoki, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neuronal plasticity in neocortex.
  • Jayeeta Basu *, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Synaptic and circuit mechanisms of learning and memory.
  • Emily Bayer *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neural mechanisms and behavioral outputs of visceral sensation​.
  • Andrea Brand *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Genetic networks of neural stem cells, chromatin, differentiation.
  • György Buzsaki , Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Rhythms in neural networks.
  • Tom Carew, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Molecular, cellular, and behavioral aspects of memory formation.
  • Adam Carter *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Organization and function of neural circuits.
  • Moses Chao, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Mechanisms of neurotophin receptor signaling.
  • Rory Coleman *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neural mechanisms that underlie behavioral innovation.
  • Christine Constantinople *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Circuits underlying decision-making.
  • Jeremy Dasen *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Genetic basis of neural circuit formation and function.
  • Javier Emperado-Melero *, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Organization and assembly of synaptic protein machineries.
  • Gilad Evrony, Associate Professor, Human Genetics & Genomics. Genomics technologies for neuroscience.
  • André Fenton *, Professor & Director, Center for Neural Science. Molecular, cellular, and behavioral aspects of memory.
  • Robert Froemke *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Synaptic plasticity, cortical dynamics, and social behavior.​
  • Molly Gale-Hammel, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Functional gene networks in neurodegenerative disease, in particular ALS: transposable elements
  • Paul Glimcher *, Professor & Director, Department of Neuroscience. Decision making.
  • Michael Hawken, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neuronal mechanisms of visual perception.
  • Biyu He *, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Large-scale brain dynamics underlying human cognition.
  • David Heeger *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neural circuit theory.
  • Orna Issler *, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Non-coding RNAs in depression and pain.
  • Danique Jeurissen *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Neural mechanisms of vision and decision making.
  • Un Jung Kang, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neural plasticity and pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease.
  • Roozbeh Kiani *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Decision making, visual shape and motion processing.
  • Lynne Kiorpes, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Development of visual function.
  • Eric Klann *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Molecular mechanisms of learning and memory.
  • Eric Lang *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neuronal basis of motor control.
  • Shane Liddelow *, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Astrocytes in health and disease.
  • Dayu Lin *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neural circuits that underlie social behaviors.
  • Michael Long *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neural mechanisms of social communication.
  • Wei Ji Ma *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Computational cognitive science: planning, goal pursuit, problem solving, decision-making, working memory, visual perception, neural coding.
  • Esteban Mazzoni *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neuronal cell differentiation, epigenetics and neurodegeneration.
  • Alice Mosberger *, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Sensorimotor control of arm movements.
  • Tony Movshon *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Vision and visual development.
  • Katherine Nagel *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Navigation and multi-sensory integration.
  • Anders Nelson *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Motor systems, including cortex and spinal cord.
  • Thomas Neubert, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Using mass spectrometry to study neuronal signaling.
  • Hannah Payne *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. A neuroethological approach to memory and perception.
  • John Pearson, Associate Professor, Center for Neural Science. Computational neuroscience, neuroethology, NeuroAI.
  • Alex Reyes, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Functional interactions of neurons in a network.
  • Margaret Rice *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neurochemistry and physiology of the nigrostriatal pathway.
  • Erin Rich *, Associate Professor, Center for Neural Science. Cognitive control and decision-making.
  • Dmitry Rinberg *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Sensory information processing in the behaving animal.
  • Niels Ringstad *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neurochemical signaling pathways modulating behaviors.
  • Bernardo Rudy, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Organization and function of neocortical circuits.
  • James Salzer, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Interactions between myelin and axons in health and disease.
  • Dan Sanes *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Development and plasticity of the auditory system.
  • Cristina Savin *, Associate Professor, Center for Neural Science. Learning & memory, neural circuits, and computation.
  • David Schneider *, Associate Professor, Center for Neural Science. Sensory and motor circuits for listening and learning.
  • David Schoppik *, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Balance and general principles of neural circuit function.
  • Robert Shapley, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Visual physiology and perception.
  • Shy Shoham *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Methods for controlling, imaging, and analyzing neural systems.
  • Einar Sigurdsson *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Age-related degenerative diseases.
  • Eero Simoncelli *, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Computational neuroscience and visual/auditory perception.
  • Tanya Sippy *, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neural circuits underlying reward processing.
  • Wendy Suzuki, Professor, Center for Neural Science. The effects of exercise on learning, memory and cognition.
  • Lucas Tian * (starting January 2027), Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Abstraction and recombination in solving new problems.
  • Richard Tsien, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Signaling mechanisms linking activity to cytoplasmic events.
  • Jing Wang *, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. AMPA receptors in pain and anesthesia.
  • Xiao-Jing Wang, Professor, Center for Neural Science. Computational neuroscience, decisions & working memory.
  • Alex Williams *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science & Flatiron Institute. Computational neuroscience.
  • Stephen Zhang *, Assistant Professor, Center for Neural Science. Biochemical computation in innate behavioral circuits.

Additional Faculty

  • ​Karen Adolph, Professor, Psychology. Behavioral flexibility in infants, children, and adults.
  • Justin Blau, Professor, Biology. Behavioral genetics and neurobiology of circadian rhythms.
  • Nigel Bunnett, Professor & Chair, Molecular Pathobiology. Signaling mechanisms of chronic pain.
  • Marisa Carrasco, Professor, Psychology. Visual perception and attention.
  • Aravinda Chakravarti, Director & Professor, Center for Human Genetics & Genomics. Human molecular genetics.
  • Zhe Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry. Computational neuroscience, brain machine interfaces and NeuroAI, for study of memory & learning, cognitive flexibility and decision making.
  • Dmitri Chklovskii, Research Associate Professor Department of Neuroscience. Computational biology, imaging, systems, cognitive and computational neuroscience.
  • Clayton Curtis, Professor, Psychology. Prefrontal cortex, working memory, and control of action.
  • Claude Desplan, Professor, Biology. Pattern formation and development of the visual system.
  • Adeen Flinker, Associate Professor, Neurology. Electrocorticography of speech perception and production.
  • Todd Gureckis, Professor, Psychology. Computation and cognition.
  • Catherine Hartley, Associate Professor, Psychology. Learning and decision-making.
  • Michael Landy, Professor, Psychology. Visual perception and the visual control of action.
  • Efrat Levy, Professor, Nathan Kline Institute. Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
  • Adam Mar, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Neuropharmacological mechanisms of prefrontal cortex in regulating motivation, cognition and decision making on translationally-relevant behavior paradigms.
  • Stefano Martiniani, Assistant Professor, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics
  • Marcelo Mattar, Assistant Professor, Psychology.
  • Dimitris Placantonakis, Associate Professor, Neurosurgery. Glioma, stem cells, chromatin organization, adhesion receptors. 
  • David Poeppel, Professor, Psychology. Cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms of speech perception & auditory cognition.
  • Neville Sanjana, Associate Professor, Biology. Genetics and genomics in neuroscience. 
  • Helen Scharfman, Professor, Nathan Kline Institute. Excitability, plasticity and dysfunction in complex disorders.
  • Regina Sullivan, Professor, Nathan Kline Institute. Infant attachment and amygdala-dependent fear learning.
  • Mario Svirsky, Professor, Otolaryngology. Auditory neuroscience.
  • ​Moriah Thomason, Associate Professor, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Cognition and emotion in the human brain. 
  • ​Jessica Treisman, Professor, Skirball Institute. Pattern formation in the Drosophila visual system.
  • ​Jonathan Winawer, Associate Professor, Psychology. Visual perception and cognition.
  • Thomas Wisniewski, Professor, Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s and prion diseases.
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