Dora E. Angelaki

Dora Angelaki is a Professor of Neuroscience in the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. She previously held the Wilhelmina Robertson Professorship of Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine. She looks at multi-sensory information flow between subcortical and cortical areas of the brain. Her research interests include spatial navigation and decision-making circuits. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2014.

Early life and education Angelaki grew up in Crete. She studied electrical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. During her undergraduate studies Angelaki became interested in biomedical engineering, and started to read biology papers alongside her degree. Here she worked on fluid-filled passages in the inner ear, known as the vestibular system, which controls our spatial orientation and maintains our posture.

Research and career Angelaki was made an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi in 1993. She holds a joint position at Rice University.

She investigates the communication between cells in the brain. She is interested in spatial orientation and navigation in humans and primates. She combines behavioural analysis with multi-electrode recording, laminar probes and microsimulation. Angelaki looks at how cognitive behaviour is produced in neuronal populations. She showed that people with autism often have imbalances in the balance of neural excitation to neural inhibition, known as divisive normalisation.

Angelaki joined the New York University Tandon School of Engineering where she investigates the differences between human brains and artificial intelligence.

Awards and honours 1992 National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship 2006 The Bárány Society Helpike-Nylen Medal 2012 National Academy of Sciences Pradel Award 2014 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Personal life Angelaki is married to J. David Dickman, a neurobiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine. They have two daughters.