Kathryn Bonnen, Ph.D.

Kathryn Bonnen is a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Eero Simoncelli at the Center for Neural Science at New York University. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science and psychology at Michigan State University and received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin.

As a doctoral student working with Dr. Alexander Huk and Dr. Lawrence Cormack, her research focused on the neural mechanisms of 3-D motion perception and the development of novel paradigms for studying visual perception. Her doctoral research was supported by the Harrington Fellowship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship programs. After graduate school, Bonnen worked as an ARVO/VSS fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in the Optometry School, where she studied the effect of certain types of visual impairment (e.g., amblyopia, strabismus) on sensorimotor tasks like walking.

Bonnen’s current research focuses on understanding neural information processing in mammalian visual systems. By measuring the statistical properties of the natural world and combining that knowledge with models of neural processing and behavior, she aims to better understand the neural representations that inform visually guided behavior.