faculty
Géraldine Legendre
Professor & Chair
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 249 | 230 (lab)
- 410-516-6844 (admin office)
Research Interests: Adult and child syntax; Optimality Theory; models of the interfaces; cross-linguistic variation
Education: PhD, University of California San Diego
Mick Bonner
Assistant Professor, Colloquium Chair
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 153 | 107 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, vision, neural networks, deep learning, advanced statistical methods for neuroscience
Education: PhD, University of Pennsylvania
John T. Hale
Research Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 243
Research Interests: Computational linguistics, corpus methods, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics
Education: PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Jennifer Hu
Assistant Research Professor
Assistant Professor eff. July 2025
Contact Information
Research Interests: Computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, artificial intelligence, pragmatics, language processing, social cognition
Education: PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Leyla Isik (she/her/hers)
Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 151 | 119 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Computational cognitive neuroscience, vision, social perception, neural networks
Education: PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Annemarie Kocab (she/her)
Assistant Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 155 | 131 (lab)
Research Interests: Language emergence, language acquisition, language processing, sign languages
Education: PhD, Harvard University
Barbara Landau
Dick and Lydia Todd Professor, Interim Director of Graduate Studies
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 241A | 231 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Human knowledge of language and space, typical and atypical development
Education: PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Michael McCloskey
Professor, Homewood IRB Chair
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 143A | 143 (lab)
- 410-516-5325
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Reading and writing, visual perception, cognitive neuropsychology, foundations of cognitive science
Education: PhD, Princeton University
Brenda Rapp
Research Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 135A | 135 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Cognitive neuropsychology, attention, reading and writing
Education: PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Kyle Rawlins
Associate Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 149 | 105 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Formal semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and the interfaces of these areas, computational semantics, philosophy of language.
Education: PhD, University of California Santa Cruz
Margaret E. L. Renwick (she/her)
Associate Research Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 169 | 138 (lab)
- 410-516-7980
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Sociophonetics, laboratory phonology, phonetics, speech acoustics, linguistics
Education: PhD, Cornell University
Paul Smolensky (he/him)
Krieger-Eisenhower Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 241B | Krieger 234A (lab)
Research Interests: Universal grammar in Optimality Theory, integration of connectionist ('neural') and symbolic computation: computational, linguistic, and philosophical issues
Education: PhD, Indiana University
Colin Wilson
Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 247 | 138 (lab)
- 410-516-0382 (academic admin)
Research Interests: Theoretical and experimental phonology, phonetics, cross-language perception and production, computational modeling
Education: PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Alan Yuille
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Clark 324B | Krieger 147 (lab)
- Group/Lab Website
Research Interests: Computational models of vision, mathematical models of cognition, and artificial intelligence and neural networks
Education: PhD, University of Cambridge
Teaching Faculty
Pasha Koval (he/him)
Visiting Assistant Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 245
Research Interests: Experimental syntax
Education: PhD, University of Connecticut
Uyen Le (she/her/hers)
Junior Lecturer/Professional TA
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 171
Education: MA, Johns Hopkins University
Donald Li
Visiting Assistant Professor
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 245
Research Interests: Computational cognitive neuroscience, AI and neural networks, Visual perception, Reading and writing, Virtual Reality and vision
Education: PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Julia Yarmolinskaya
Senior Lecturer
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 171
Research Interests: Perception and acquisition of second language phonology
Education: PhD, Johns Hopkins University
administrative staff
Sarah Ciotola (she/her/hers)
Administrative Manager
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 237E
- 410-516-6844
Chamera Sampson (she/her/hers)
Sr. Academic Program Coordinator
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 237B
- 410-516-0382
Bernard Nwankwo
Sr. Systems Administrator, KSAS IT
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 173
lab staff
Avery Kaye
Research Coordinator for the Language and Cognition (Landau) Lab
Contact Information
Research Interests: Behavioral and neuroimaging techniques in the developing brain
Cassie Kim
Research Coordinator for the Language Creation & Learning (Kocab) Lab
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 131
- 410-516-5745
Wenshuo Qin
Research Coordinator for the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience (Isik) Lab
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 119
- Group/Lab Website
Jennifer Shea
Sr Research Program Coordinator for the Cognitive & Brain Sciences Lab
Contact Information
postdocs and research scientists
Yuan Tao
Assistant Research Scientist, Cognitive and Brain Sciences Lab
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 135 Lab
Research Interests: Reading and writing, aphasia recovery, statistical machine learning, neuroimaging, brain connectivity
Yuanfang Zhao
Postdoctoral Fellow for the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Contact Information
- [email protected]
- Krieger 119 Lab
Affiliated faculty
Marina Bedny
Associate Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Brain development and plasticity, cognitive neuroscience, concepts
Justin Bledin
Assistant Professor, Philosophy
Contact Information
Research Interests: Logic, philosophy of language (esp. formal semantics), epistemology
Dana Boatman
Professor, School of Medicine, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Contact Information
Research Interests: Speech perception, auditory processing disorders, auditory neurophysiology
Emory Davis
Fellow by Courtesy in the Language and Cognition Lab (Landau Lab)
Contact Information
Research Interests: Role of language in cognitive development; understanding of abstract concepts; mental/ attitude verbs
John E. Desmond
Professor, School of Medicine, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Contact Information
Research Interests: Neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation methods to investigate neural correlates of behavior
Jason Eisner
Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Computer Science
Contact Information
Research Interests: Computational linguistics, natural language processing, statistical machine learning
Lisa Feigenson
Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive development
Chaz Firestone
Associate Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Perception, attention, visual cognition, foundations of cognitive science
Jonathan Flombaum
Associate Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Visual perception, attention, cognition
Kristin Gagnier
Assistant Research Scientist in the Language & Cognition Lab (Landau Lab)
Contact Information
Research Interests: interdisciplinary training in connecting cognitive science research to education practices
Barry Gordon
Professor, School of Medicine, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive neurology, cognitive neuroscience, language, aphasia, memory, amnesia, and memory disorders, autism, computational models of cognition
Steven Gross
Professor, Philosophy, Foundations of Mind Group
Contact Information
Research Interests: Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics
Norberto Grzywacz
Visiting Professor
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive and computational neuroscience of aesthetic emotions
Justin Halberda
Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive and developmental psychology
Argye Hillis
Professor, School of Medicine, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Contact Information
Research Interests: Language impairments in acute stroke, hemispatial neglect after stroke, relationship between cognitive impairments and regions of hypoperfused brain
Haemy Lee Masson
Fellow by Courtesy in the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Contact Information
Research Interests: Social cognition, Computational models of social scene perception, Social impairments in autism
Shari Liu
Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive development, cognitive neuroscience, infant cognition, social cognition
Alex Lu
Fellow by Courtesy in the Language Creation and Learning Lab
Contact Information
Research Interests: Artificial intelligence; computer vision; medical, health and genomics
Brice Ménard
Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Contact Information
Research Interests: Machine Learning, astrophysics & complex systems
Jeremy Purcell
Fellow by Courtesy in the Cognitive & Brain Sciences Lab (Rapp Lab)
Contact Information
Research Interests: Written language representation and brain injury
Tianmin Shu
Assistant Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Computer Science
Contact Information
Research Interests: Social AI, human-robot interaction, and computational social cognition
Kyrana Tsapkini
Associate Professor, Neurology, School of Medicine
Contact Information
Research Interests: language--combining cognitive science, psychology, neural science approaches
Benjamin Van Durme
Associate Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Computer Science
Contact Information
Research Interests: Natural language processing, specifically semantics; streaming/randomized algorithms
Robert Wiley
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Cognitive & Brain Sciences Lab (Rapp Lab)
Contact Information
Research Interests: Cognitive science and education, mental representation and learning, neural plasticity, second language acquisition
Emeriti
Luigi Burzio
Professor Emeritus
Contact Information
Research Interests: Theoretical phonology, morphology, and syntax; romance linguistics
Education: PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology