Doris Tsao facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Doris Tsao
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Changzhou, China
|
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology (BS) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Known for | Face perception |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience Visual perception |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Stereopsis (2002) |
| Doctoral advisor | Margaret Livingstone |
Doris Ying Tsao is an American neuroscientist. She is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies how our brains see and understand the world around us.
Professor Tsao is famous for her work on how the brain recognizes faces. She uses special brain imaging techniques to understand this process. She also discovered specific areas in the brain that are important for seeing faces. In 2018, she won a special award called the MacArthur "Genius" fellowship. In 2024, she received the Kavli Prize for her discoveries about face recognition in the brain.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Doris Tsao was born in Changzhou, China. Her family moved to the United States when she was four years old. She grew up in College Park, Maryland.
She became interested in science, especially how the brain sees things. She studied at the Caltech. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology and mathematics in just three years. After that, she went to Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in neuroscience in 2002.
In 2004, she received an award that allowed her to start her own research group. This group was in Germany. Later, in 2009, she joined the faculty at Caltech. She taught biology there for 12 years. In 2021, she moved to UC Berkeley.
Discoveries About the Brain
Professor Tsao's research focuses on visual perception. This is how our brains make sense of what we see. She uses advanced methods to study the brain.
How Brains See Faces
One of her biggest discoveries is about how the brain recognizes faces. She found specific small areas in the brain that react strongly to faces. These areas are called the "face patch system." They are similar to areas found in human brains.
Her team learned how these brain areas work. They found out what specific features of a face make these brain cells active. In 2017, her lab made a big breakthrough. They "cracked the code" of how our brains recognize faces. They could even reconstruct a face just by looking at the brain's activity!
Advanced Brain Research
Professor Tsao uses a technique called fMRI. This method shows which parts of the brain are active. She combines fMRI with other techniques. This helps her see how individual brain cells respond.
Her work helps us understand how the brain creates our sense of reality. It shows how complex processes like face recognition happen. She is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She leads a center for systems neuroscience.
Awards and Recognition
Doris Tsao has received many important awards for her work. These awards recognize her amazing contributions to science.
- In 2007, she was named one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review.
- She won a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship in 2018.
- In 2020, she became a member of the National Academy of Sciences. This is a very high honor for scientists.
- In 2024, she received the Kavli Prize in neuroscience. This was for her work on face recognition in the brain.
- Also in 2024, she was awarded the Rosenstiel Award.
See also
- List of neuroscientists
- Margaret Livingstone
- Science (journal)
- MacArthur Fellows Program
