Marlene Behrmann facts for kids

Marlene Behrmann, born on April 14, 1959, is a very important scientist who studies how our brains see and understand the world around us. She is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and used to teach at Carnegie Mellon University. Her main focus is on how our brains recognize objects, like seeing a ball and knowing it's a ball. She works in the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience, which are about how the mind and brain work.

Learning and Degrees

Marlene Behrmann was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 14, 1959. She went to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. There, she earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), in 1981. This degree was in speech and hearing therapy. Later, in 1984, she earned her Master of Arts (M.A.) in speech pathology from the same university.

She then moved to Canada to continue her studies. In 1991, she earned her Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) in Psychology from the University of Toronto. A Ph.D. is the highest degree you can get in a field of study.

Her Work and Research

After finishing her studies, Dr. Behrmann worked at the University of Toronto from 1991 to 1993. In 1993, she became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She stayed there for many years, teaching and doing research. In 2022, she moved to the University of Pittsburgh, where she now works in the Department of Ophthalmology. She has also been a visiting professor at other famous places, like the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Dr. Behrmann's research tries to answer a big question: How does our brain take the simple information from our eyes and turn it into a clear picture of the world? Our eyes only send small bits of information to the brain. Dr. Behrmann wants to know how the brain puts these pieces together so we can understand what we are seeing.

She is known as a leader in the field of visual cognition. This means she is an expert in how we think about and understand what we see. To study this, she uses special tools like neuroimaging. This allows her to see what parts of the brain are active when people are looking at things. She also uses psychophysics, which studies how our physical senses (like sight) connect with our mental experiences. She uses these methods to study how the human visual system works, both in healthy people and in those with brain conditions.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Dr. Marlene Behrmann has received many important awards and honors for her amazing work:

• In 2015, she was chosen to be a member of the National Academy of Sciences. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United States.
• In 2019, she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This group honors leaders in many fields, including science.
• She is also a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists.
• She is a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society.
• She is a Fellow of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

These honors show that her work is highly respected by other scientists around the world.