Jim DiCarlo is Professor of Neuroscience, Head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1998, and did his postdoctoral training in primate visual neurophysiology at Baylor College of Medicine. He joined the MIT faculty in 2002, and he taught MIT’s undergraduate systems neuroscience laboratory for a decade.

The goal of Jim’s research group is a computational understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie visual object recognition. They study the data transformations carried out by a series of cortical processing stages—called the primate ventral visual stream—that somehow untangle object identity from the complicated patterns of light that strike our eyes. His group is currently using a combination of large-scale neuronal recording, brain imaging, optogenetic methods to manipulate neuronal activity, and computational simulations to understand the neuronal mechanisms that underlie the construction of these powerful neural representations of visual images. They aim to use this understanding to inspire and develop new artificial vision systems, to provide a basis for neural prosthetics (brain-machine interfaces) to restore or augment lost senses, and to provide a foundation upon which the community can understand how high-level visual representation is altered in human conditions such as agnosia, autism and dyslexia.

Jim and his wife, Julie, live with their two young children, Mia (7) and Max (4) in Brookline, Massachusetts. Jim began running, swimming, and biking competitively nearly 30 years ago. Although he now has less time to devote to these activities, he aims to run at least one marathon each year, and he is a regular qualifier for the Boston Marathon. He is inspired every day by the MIT community, and he hopes that he can use his passion for running to help further support that community and all those that have served, and continue to serve it.

Jim’s running goal time range for this year’s Boston Marathon is 3:00-3:10, and he is always happy to hear from anyone that would like company on those many long runs!