The CNBC is a joint venture of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Our center leverages the strengths of the University of Pittsburgh in basic and clinical neuroscience and those of Carnegie Mellon in cognitive and computational science to support a coordinated cross-university research and educational program of international stature. In addition to our Ph.D. program in Neural Computation, we sponsor a graduate certificate program in cooperation with a wide variety of affiliated Ph.D. programs.

Within the CNBC, our over 200 world-class faculty and trainees are investigating the cognitive and neural mechanisms that give rise to biological intelligence and behavior. Research topics include affective, cognitive, linguistic, perceptual, motor and social systems in both normal and disordered populations. The CNBC also promotes the translation of findings from basic research into applications for medicine, education, robotics and artificial intelligence.

The CNBC is extremely pleased to announce that our CNBC co-director, Peter Strick, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the NAS is a singular honor for which Peter is richly deserving. Please join us in congratulating Peter. For more information see: http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2012_05_01_NAS_Election.html

Brain imaging techniques such as fMRI, PET and EEG are giving researchers more insight into how our minds work than ever before. The datasets derived from imaging research are often immensely huge and complex.

Thomas Nichols (MCS’92, DC’00) is very familiar with how to successfully use this type of data. Nichols received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics and a Ph.D. in statistics and completed the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) Graduate Training Program. He is currently a principal research fellow and head of Neuroimaging Statistics at Warwick University’s Department of Statistics and Institute for Digital Healthcare, which aims to improve health and wellbeing through the use of innovative digital technologies. He is also the co-author of the book, “Handbook of fMRI Data Analysis.”

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