Glushko Dissertation Prize
The Cognitive Science Society and the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation will award up to five outstanding dissertation prizes in cognitive science. The goals of these prizes are to increase the prominence of cognitive science, and encourage students to engage in interdisciplinary efforts to understand minds and intelligent systems. The hope is that the prizes will recognize and honor young researchers conducting ground-breaking research in cognitive science. The eventual goal is to aid in efforts to bridge between the areas of cognitive science and create theories of general interest to the multiple fields concerned with scientifically understanding the nature of minds and intelligent systems. Promoting a unified cognitive science is consistent with the belief that understanding how minds work will require the synthesis of many different empirical methods, formal tools, and analytic theories. 2011 was the inaugural year of this prize, and a new competition is held annually.
The prizes are funded by the Robert J. Glushko and Pamela Samuelson Fund, based in San Francisco.
Robert J. Glushko is an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology in 1979 under David Rumelhart’s supervision. He is an Adjunct Full Professor in the Cognitive Science Program at the University of California, Berkeley. He also funds the David E. Rumelhart Prize for Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition.
- Up to five Robert J. Glushko Dissertation/Ph.D. Thesis Prizes in Cognitive Science will be awarded annually. Each prize will be accompanied by a certificate and a $10,000 award to be used by the recipient without any constraints. Prize winners will also receive three years of complimentary membership in the Cognitive Science Society starting with the year in which they have won the prize.
- Prize-winners must have received a PhD degree no more than two years before the January 18 nomination deadline. For the 2025 prizes, dissertations will be considered from individuals who received their PhD degrees during the period from January 18, 2023 to January 18, 2025.
- Prize-winning dissertations/Ph.D. theses are expected to transcend any one of the individual fields comprising cognitive science. They should centrally address issues of interest to multiple fields that comprise cognitive science, including: psychology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and education.
- The dissertation/Ph.D. thesis prizes are open to any student who has conducted dissertation/thesis research related to cognitive science, regardless of nationality or originating department.
Prize Committee
The Robert J. Glushko Prize is administered by the Prize Selection Committee in consultation with the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation. Screening of nominees and selection of the prize winner will be performed by the Prize Selection Committee. Scientific members (including the Chair) of the Prize Selection Committee will serve for up to two four-year terms, and are appointed by the Governing Board of The Cognitive Science Society in consultation with the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation. A representative of the Foundation also serves on the Prize Selection Committee.
Jessica Cantlon (Chair), Professor of Developmental Neuroscience/Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University
Morgan Barense, Professor of Neuropsychology, University of Toronto
Jennifer Culbertson, Professor of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
Todd Gureckis, Professor of Psychology, New York University
Natasha Kirkham, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
Alison Peterman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Rochester
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2024 Winners
Tianwei Gong – 2023 PhD Thesis “Causal induction in time” from University of Edinburgh
Matthias Grabenhorst – 2022 PhD Thesis “The Anticipation of Events in Time” from Radboud University Nijmegen
Sean Dae Houlihan – 2022 PhD Thesis “A Computational Framework for Emotion Understanding” from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shailee Jain – 2023 PhD Thesis “Investigating the neurobiology of language with artificial language systems” from The University of Texas at Austin
Tom McCoy – 2022 PhD Thesis “Implicit Compositional Structure in the Vector Representations of Artificial Neural Networks” from Johns Hopkins University
Dominika Radziun – 2023 PhD Thesis “Body perception and brain plasticity in blind and sighted individuals” from Karolinska Institutet
Hunter Schone – 2023 PhD Thesis “Neurocognitive considerations for engineering bionic limbs” from University College London
2023 Winners
Valentina Bruno – 2021 PhD thesis “Motor awareness: From pathological models to normal functioning” from University of Turin
Frederick Callaway – 2022 PhD thesis “Cognition as a sequential decision problem” from Princeton University
Samuel Cheyette – 2021 PhD thesis “Making sense of number, bit-by-bit” from University of California, Berkeley
Erin Isbilen – 2021 PhD thesis “Statistical learning as chunking: Domain-general computations in language acquisition” from Cornell University
Mathias Sablé-Meyer – 2022 PhD thesis “Human cognition of geometric shapes, a window into the mental representation of abstract concepts” from Université PSL, prepared at Collège de France
2022 Winners
Kelsey Allen – 2021 PhD thesis “Learning to act with objects, relations and physics” from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carolyn Baer – 2020 PhD thesis “Developing a sense of certainty” from University of British Columbia
Judy Sein Kim – 2020 PhD thesis “’Visual’ knowledge in the absence of visual experience” from Johns Hopkins University
Sebastian Musslick – 2021 PhD thesis “On the rational bounds of cognitive control” from Princeton University
Tim Sainburg – 2021 PhD thesis “Temporal organization in vocal communication: sequential structure, perceptual integration, and neural foundations” from University of California, San Diego
2021 Winners
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta – 2020 PhD thesis “Towards an ecologically valid neurobiology of bilingualism”, from New York University: précis
Laura Gwilliams – 2020 PhD thesis “Towards a mechanistic account of speech comprehension in the human brain” from New York University: précis
Andrew Lampinen – 2020 PhD thesis “A computational framework for learning and transforming task representations” from Stanford University: précis
Shari Liu – 2020 PhD thesis “Nature and origins of intuitive psychology in human infants” from Harvard University: précis
Vencislav Popov – 2020 PhD thesis “Resource depletion and recovery in human memory” from Carnegie Mellon University: précis
James Whittington – 2020 PhD thesis “A Bayesian account of learning and generalising representations in the brain” from University of Oxford: précis
2020 Winners
Damián Blasi – 2018 PhD thesis “Linguistic Diversity Through Data,” from Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, précis
Stephen Ferrigno – 2018 PhD thesis “The Evolutionary and Developmental Origins of Human Thought,” from University of Rochester, précis
Shipra Kanjlia – 2018 PhD thesis “Preservation and Plasticity in the Neural Basis of Numerical Thinking in Blindness,” from Johns Hopkins University, précis
Falk Lieder – 2018 PhD thesis “Beyond Bounded Rationality: Reverse-Engineering and Enhancing Human Intelligence,” from University of California, Berkeley, précis
Sebastian Michelmann – 2018 PhD thesis “Temporal Dynamics and Mechanisms of Oscillatory Pattern Reinstatement in Human Episodic Memory,” from University of Birmingham, précis
Laurel Perkins – 2019 PhD thesis “How Grammars Grow: Argument Structure and the Acquisition of Non-basic Syntax,” from University of Maryland, précis
Leor Zmigrod – 2019 PhD thesis “The Cognitive Underpinnings of Ideological Thinking,” from University of Cambridge, précis
2019 Winners
Kirsten Adam – 2018 PhD thesis “Characterizing the limits of visual working memory,” from University of Chicago, précis
Max Kleiman-Weiner – 2018 PhD thesis “Computational foundations of human social intelligence,” from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, précis
Martin Maier – 2018 PhD thesis “Language, meaning, and visual perception: Event-related potentials reveal top-down influences on early visual processing,” from Humboldt University, précis
Jean-Paul Noel – 2018 PhD thesis “Leveraging multisensory neurons, circuits, brains, and bodies to study consciousness: From the outside-in and the inside-out,” from Vanderbilt University, précis
Katharine Tillman – 2017 PhD thesis “Constructing the concept of time: Roles of language, perception, and culture,” from University of California, San Diego, précis
2018 Winners
Melody Dye – 2017 PhD thesis “Bridging Levels of Analysis: Learning, Information Theory, and the Lexicon ” from Indiana University, précis
Chaz Firestone – 2017 PhD thesis “Cognition Does Not Affect Perception” from Yale University, précis
Sagi Jaffe-Dax – 2016 PhD thesis “Neural Basis and Computational Account for Dyslexia” from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, précis
Eric Schulz – 2017 PhD thesis “Towards a Unifying Theory of Generalization” from University College London, précis
Michelle Spierings – 2016 PhD thesis “The Music of Language: Exploring Grammar, Prosody and Rhythm Perception” from Leiden University, précis
2017 Winners
Alexandra Carstensen – 2016 PhD thesis “Universals and variation in language and thought: Concepts, communication, and semantic structure” from University of California, Berkeley, précis
Judith Ellen Fan, 2016 PhD thesis “Role of cognitive actions in learning” from Princeton University, précis
Julian Jara-Ettinger, 2016 PhD thesis “The inner life of goals: Costs, rewards, and commonsense psychology” from MIT, précis
Samuel G. B. Johnson, 2016 PhD thesis “Cognition as sense-making” from Yale University, précis
Dave F. Kleinschmidt, 2016 PhD thesis “Perception in a variable but structured world: The case of speech perception” from University of Rochester, précis
2016 Winners
Lang Chen, PhD thesis “White matter connectivity explains category-specific brain activation and impairment: A neurocomputational model of semantic cognition” from University of Wisconsin – Madison, précis
Isabelle Dautriche, PhD thesis “Weaving an ambiguous lexicon” from University of Paris Descartes and Ecole Normale Supérieure, précis
Jan Engelmann, PhD thesis “An empirical investigation of the evolutionary and ontogenetic roots of trust” from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, précis
Philip Pärnamets, PhD thesis “Observing and influencing preferences in time” from Lund University, précis
Andrew Saxe, PhD thesis “Deep linear neural networks: A theory of learning in the brain and mind” from Stanford University, précis
2015 Winners
Harm Brouwer – 2014 PhD thesis “The Electrophysiology of Language Comprehension: A Neurocomputational Model” from University of Groningen, précis
Da Cheong (Jena) Hwang – 2014 PhD thesis “Identification and Representation of Caused Motion Constructions” from University of Colorado, précis
Brenden Lake – 2014 PhD thesis “Towards more human-like concept learning in machines: Compositionality, causality, and learning-to-learn” from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, précis
Jessica Sullivan – 2014 PhD thesis “The Roles of Inference and Associative Learning in the Construction of Mappings Between Number Words and Numerical Magnitudes” from University of California – San Diego, précis
2014 Winners
Samuel Gershman – 2013 PhD thesis “Memory Modification in the Brain: Computational and Experimental Investigations” from Princeton University, précis
Celeste Kidd – 2013 PhD thesis “Rational Approaches to Learning and Development” from University of Rochester, précis
Victoria Leong – 2013 PhD thesis “Speech Rhythm Cognition : A Multi-Disciplinary Account” from University of Cambridge, précis
Ian Lyons – 2012 PhD thesis “A Sense of Order: Ordinality and the meaning of symbolic numbers” from University of Chicago, précis
Takao Sasaki – 2013 PhD thesis “Psychology Of A Superorganism” from Arizona State University, précis
2013 Winners
Douglas Knox Bemis – 2012 PhD thesis “Simple Composition During Language Processing: An MEG Investigation” from New York University, précis
Neil Cohn – 2012 PhD thesis “Structure, Meaning, and Constituency in Visual Narrative Comprehension” from Tufts University, précis
George Kachergis – 2012 PhD thesis “Mechanisms for Cross-Situational Learning of Word-Referent Mappings: Empirical and Modeling Evidence” from Indiana University,précis
Andrew Lovett – 2012 PhD thesis “Spatial Routines for Sketches: A Framework for Modeling Spatial Problem Solving” from Northwestern University, précis
Liad Mudrik – 2011 PhD thesis “Processing Visual Context Violations: The Roles of Attention and Awareness” from Tel Aviv University, précis
2012 Winners
Timothy F. Brady – 2011 PhD thesis “Structured Representations in Visual Working Memory” from MIT – précis
Jennifer L. Culbertson – 2010 PhD thesis “Learning Biases, Regularization, and the Emergence of Typological Universals in Syntax” from Johns Hopkins University- précis
Nazbanou Nozari – 2011 PhD thesis “Is Comprehension Necessary for Error Detection? A Conflict-based Account of Monitoring in Speech Production” from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign- précis
Steven T. Piantadosi – 2011 PhD thesis “Learning and the language of thought” from MIT-précis
Rachel Wu – 2011 PhD thesis “Learning (to Learn) from Spatial Attention Cues During Infancy” from Birkbeck, University of London – précis
2011 Winners
Vera Demberg-Winterfors – 2010 PhD thesis “A Broad-Coverage Model of Prediction in Human Sentence Processing” from The University of Edinburgh – précis
Michael Frank – 2010 PhD thesis “Early Word Learning Through Communicative Inference” from MIT- précis
Chi-Tat Law – 2009 PhD thesis “Mechanisms of learning a visual motion discrimination task” from University of Pennsylvania- précis
Eric Mandelbaum – 2010 PhD thesis “The Architecture of Belief: An Essay on the Unbearable Automaticity of Believing” from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – précis
Edward Vul – 2010 PhD thesis “Sampling in human cognition” from MIT – précis
