Lori Holt and Julie Fiez have been appointed co-directors of the the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. The center is a collaboration of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
The center leverages CMU’s strong cognitive and computational neuroscience programs with Pitt’s basic and clinical neuroscience expertise. It provides a way for students and faculty to connect formally and informally, including graduate training, undergraduate research opportunities and collaboration clusters, which encourage joint publications and grant submissions from the two universities. The center was formed in 1994 with support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Funding for the center now comes from CMU’s Neuroscience Institute and from the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research at Pitt.
Dr. Holt is a professor in CMU’s Neuroscience Institute and department of psychology. She is an expert in auditory cognitive neuroscience with a focus on understanding how humans interpret the complexity of spoken language. She joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999 and was promoted to full professor in 2010. Dr. Holt holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Fiez is the chair of Pitt’s department of psychology. Her research focuses on neural systems for language and learning, and integrates behavioral, neuroimaging, neuropsychological and intracranial recording methods in typical adults and clinical populations. Dr. Fiez joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1997 and was promoted to full professor in 2006. She has chaired the psychology department since 2016. Dr. Fiez is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis.