Marlene Behrmann, PhD, to Receive 2023 Howard Crosby Warren Medal
February 10, 2023
Marlene Behrmann, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, will receive the 2023 Howard Crosby Warren Medal from the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP) at its annual meeting in Philadelphia this May. The SEP has awarded the medal in recognition of outstanding achievement in experimental psychology in the United States and Canada since 1936.
Dr. Behrmann will be honored for her work in better understanding the neural and behavioral functioning of higher-level vision and its development and potential for plasticity. Her research, which includes both neurotypical individuals and individuals with neuropsychological conditions like autism, agnosia, migraine, lobectomy, and hemispherectomy, centers on how the sparse signals from retinae are converted into rich, elaborated, and meaningful perceptions. In the past five years, she has explored the contributions of the dorsal and ventral cortices to visual perception and the potential for plasticity in these cortices following damage.
Dr. Behrmann received her bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing therapy and her master’s in speech pathology from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by her doctorate in psychology from the University of Toronto. She is widely regarded as a trailblazer in the field of vision cognition and impairment and has received many awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Engineering and Science and the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions. Dr. Behrmann is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
