Leadership and Governance
Department Leadership
Department Head
Michale Fee
Associate Department Head, Diversity Officer, and Undergraduate Officer
Laura Schulz
Associate Department Head
Josh McDermott
Director of Education
Mehrdad Jazayeri
Graduate Officer
Mark Harnett
Postdoctoral Officer
Mark Bear
Space Officer
Nancy Kanwisher
Director of Administration and Finance
Tristan Davies
Committees
The BCS Council is a faculty committee that sets long-term strategies for the department. It serves as an advisory committee to ensure that departmental decisions are informed by a broad array of voices, and that all the leaders in the building are comfortable with and enthusiastic about those decisions.
- Michale Fee, chair
- Rebecca Saxe
- Laura Schulz
- Josh McDermott
- Robert Desimone
- Li-Huei Tsai
- Tomaso Poggio
- Emery Brown
- Mriganka Sur
- Jim DiCarlo
- Ev Fedorenko
- Mark Bear
- Josh Tenenbaum
- Elly Nedivi
- Ila Fiete
- Mark Harnett
- Mehrdad Jazayeri
- Nidhi Seethapathi
Staff contact: Tristan Davies, Director of Administration and Finance
The Education Committee creates, reviews and approves curricula, classes, qualifying exams, and undergraduate and graduate degree requirements.
- Mehrdad Jazayeri, Chair
- Matt Wilson, member
- Ev Fedorenko, member
- Sierra Vallin, member
- Julianne Ormerod, member
- Theresa Tomic, member
- Myriam Heiman, ad hoc member
- Mark Harnett, ad hoc member
- Laura Schulz, ad hoc member
- Halie Olson, graduate student representative
- Bhav Jain, undergraduate representative
BCS and Building 46 community strive to build and sustain a diverse, open, welcoming culture, dedicated to academic excellence and a shared commitment to each other’s wellbeing. The Community of Practice is a cross-hierarchical, building-wide organization of people committed to developing an inclusive, fair and equitable culture where every individual, irrespective of his/her background, has a real chance to excel.
Staff contact: Farrah Belizaire, CEIJ Program Officer
The Graduate Student Affairs oversees the graduate program, including recruitment, admissions, mentorship, and student progress through the qualifying exams.
- Mark Harnett, Chair, Graduate Officer
- Margaret Schroeder, graduate student representative
- Nancy Kanwisher, rotations coordinator
- Roger Levy, first year advisor, quals, and committees
- Steven Flavell, website
- Fan Wang
Staff contact: Sierra Vallin, Academic Administrator
Graduate Admissions oversees the admissions cycle.
Staff contact: Julianne Ormerod, Senior Graduate Program Coordinator
The Seminar Committee oversees the MIT Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition by suggesting, and accepting suggestions for, colloquium speakers; assessing current BCS colloquia series and proposing improvements; and reviewing proposals for new series or speakers.
- Alan Jasanoff, Chair
- Polina Anikeeva
- Gloria Choi, Picower Representative
- Evelina Fedorenko, BCS Representative
- Ann Graybiel, McGovern Representative
- Earl Miller
- Drazen Prelec
- Héctor de Jesús-Cortés, postdoctoral representative
- Ni Ji, postdoctoral representative
- Chen Sun, graduate student representative
Staff contact: Tristan Davies, Director of Administration and Finance
The charge of the BCS Junior Faculty Mentoring Committee is to assess the needs of junior faculty, recommend strategies to ensure effective mentorship, and help junior faculty obtain effective mentorship. This Committee is not an evaluation body, but a venue in which junior faculty can get advice without concern that they are being judged.
- Nancy Kanwisher, Chair
- Mark Bear
- Elly Nedivi
Staff contact: Tristan Davies, Director of Administration and Finance
The Community Conveners are members of specific BCS sub-communities who assess needs, organize events, and represent their communities in decision-making processes.
Postdocs
Grad students
Undergraduates
- Nahom Marie
- Leigh-Ana Rossitto
Staff contact: Tristan Davies, Director of Administration and Finance
This committee addresses the computational needs of the department.
- Satra Ghosh, Chair
- Ila Fiete
- Josh McDermott
- Jim DiCarlo
- Vikash Mansinghka
- Shaohao Chen
- Sasha Rakhlin
- Feng Zhang
Staff contact: Tristan Davies, Director of Administration and Finance