Nancy Kanwisher facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nancy G. Kanwisher
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| Born | 1958 (age 66–67) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Fusiform face area |
| Awards | Golden Brain Award Heineken Prize Kavli Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cognitive psychology |
| Institutions | UCLA Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | Repetition blindness: type recognition without token individuation (1986) |
| Doctoral advisor | Mary C. Potter |
| Doctoral students | Frank Tong |
Nancy Gail Kanwisher, born in 1958, is a leading American brain scientist. She is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a researcher at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Dr. Kanwisher studies how our brains help us see and understand the world around us. She focuses on how our minds and brains work together.
Nancy Kanwisher's Journey in Science
Nancy Kanwisher earned her first degree in biology from MIT in 1980. She then continued her studies at MIT, receiving her PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1986. After her PhD, she did more research at UC-Berkeley.
Before returning to MIT as a professor in 1997, Dr. Kanwisher taught at both UCLA and Harvard University. She has also helped edit important science journals. In a memorable moment, she once shaved her head during a lecture to show her students different parts of the brain. This helped them understand how different brain areas work.
Awards and Discoveries
Dr. Kanwisher has received many important awards for her work.
In 1999, she won the Troland Research Award. This award is given for studies about how our minds and the physical world connect. She also received the MacVicar Faculty Fellow Award in 2002. In 2016, she won the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award.
The NAS Award in the Neurosciences was given to her in 2002. In 2021, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of York in England. She also won the Jean Nicod Prize in 2023.
In 2024, Dr. Kanwisher was one of three scientists to win the Kavli Prize in neuroscience. This award recognized her discovery of a special brain system. This system helps us recognize faces in both humans and other animals. Also in 2024, she received the Rosenstiel Award.
Dr. Kanwisher helped start the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. She is also a member of important science groups like the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, she became a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
How We See and Think: Kanwisher's Research
Dr. Kanwisher is trained in cognitive psychology. This field explores how our minds work by observing how we behave. She is famous for finding and studying a special part of the human brain called the fusiform face area (FFA). This area helps us recognize faces and tell the difference between similar objects.
She also helped discover the parahippocampal place area (PPA). This brain region helps us recognize different places and scenes around us. These discoveries are very important in understanding how our brains process what we see.
To do her research, Dr. Kanwisher uses special tools. One tool is functional MRI (fMRI), which lets scientists see brain activity. She also uses other methods to study how we hear, process language, and understand social cues. In 2014, she gave a popular TED Talk called "A Neural Portrait of the Human Mind."
