SPOTLIGHT - PROFESSOR BORNSTEIN
This week's spotlight was with Professor Bornstein. He is a professor in the Cognitive Sciences Department and teaches courses PSYCH H111B, H111C, as well as a graduate seminar. His current research focuses on the role of episodic and working memory on decision making, particularly in the context of addiction.
Here's what he said!
What other positions do you hold here at UCI?
Professor Bornstein is affiliated with the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Institute for the Mathematical and Behavioral Sciences. He is humbled and excited by the legacy of legendary scientists affiliated with these UCI institutions.
How has your research been impacted by COVID-19?
A lot of his experiments have moved to using online experimentation platforms, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk. This has NOT been a setback, as he is seeing high-quality data and is able to generate informative results.
Is there a project that you have conducted or overseen that you are particularly proud of?
The work he has done on addiction has been his pride and joy - he has created a formal framework on the role of memories in addictive decision behavior.
This is beginning to answer some major questions: What memories are important for addictive behavior? Why are these memories more important than others? You can find his publications on this topic on his website.
What path did you take prior to coming at UCI?
His path shows that you don't need to have your whole life planned out by the time you graduate college, or even after.
He did not particularly enjoy this line of work, but he built connections and snatched an opportunity to be a research assistant in a neuroscience lab at Stanford. Then, he moved on to his PhD in Cognition and Perception at New York University.
Time, commitment, and hands-on experience before grad school is extremely beneficial, not an obstacle.
What industry jobs can you pursue with this line of research?
More and more firms are realizing the value of empirical science skills, especially as relates to human behavior and artificial intelligence. Students with Cognitive Sciences backgrounds are in demand at places like Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Google
THEIR ADVICE FOR YOU: Stay engaged. Reach out to professors, ask to sit in the audience of their lab meetings, find a lab that matches your interests and commit to working there for a year or two, so you can get in-depth training and a strong, detailed reference letter. In a time where disinformation and distrust are on the rise, the careful work of empirical science is more valuable than ever.
***If you are interested in joining his lab, go to his website to read about the requirements, running projects, and see if you're a good fit!
|