Dr. Stephanie Palmer

Dr. Stephanie Palmer studies learning behaviors in both animals and humans. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. She has a PhD in theoretical physics from Oxford University, and works on questions at the interface of neuroscience and statistical physics. Her recent work explores the question of how the visual system processes incoming information, to make fast and accurate predictions about the future positions of moving objects in the environment. Since her undergraduate years at Michigan State University, she has been teaching chemistry, physics, math, and biology to a wide range of students. At the University of Chicago, she founded and runs the Brains! Program, which brings local middle school students to her lab to learn hands-on neuroscience.

2017 Festival – Great Optics from Crummy Vision: How Do Your Eyes Do It?

Every day we look at the world through fickle, misshapen instruments – our eyes. Explore the math behind how your brain makes sense of these crummy pictures. Dr. Palmer will show you the basics of how vision works, revealing connections to everything from evolution to code breaking. Come see your eyes in a new light!