Leah Johnston

WHERE I'M FROM

Washington, D.C.

BEFORE VS

I was a Visiting Scholar in Frederic Theunissen's lab here at UC Berkeley, studying auditory neuroscience.

WHY I’M HERE

I'm here because of the outstanding faculty who work under the Vision Science umbrella at UC Berkeley. VS researchers here are experts in neural computation, neuroanatomy, electrical engineering, and computer vision. The breadth of the faculty, combined with the collaborative approach in many of the labs, made it clear that I could pursue my interests here with excellent mentorship.

MY RESEARCH

Coming from an auditory neuroscience lab, I hope to expand my understanding of the basic building blocks of perception by exploring multi-sensory modalities. How do we perceive the world as coherent despite having such a variety of sensory inputs? At what level of understanding can we repair--or augment--our senses?

MY GOALS

In the long term, I'm interested in developing and testing cutting edge tools and techniques for pursuing systems-level neuroscience. Researchers at Berkeley are pushing the limits of optical microscopy to peer inside the living brain. I'd like to contribute to this effort.

MY HOBBIES

I build sets and design lighting effects for my favorite drag queen, Peaches Christ.