Brian A. Wandell is the first Isaac and Madeline Stein Family Professor. He is a member of the Stanford Psychology faculty and a member, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering, Ophthalmology, and the Graduate School of Education.
In 2007 he founded Stanford’s Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, an MRI service center, continuing as faculty director until 2023. Wandell was deputy director of the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute from 2013-2021.
Wandell’s research centers on vision science, spanning topics from visual disorders, reading development in children, to digital imaging devices and algorithms for both magnetic resonance imaging and digital imaging. Wandell’s work in visual neuroscience uses functional, structural and quantitative MRI along with behavior testing and modeling to understand the action of the visual portions of the brain. His lab has worked to identify and then understand the organization of the visual field maps in the human brain, color and motion processing within these maps, the potential for reorganization following injury, and the development of the cortical circuitry for reading. Many of the analyses were performed using vistasoft, open source software for analyzing various types of MR data.
Wandell also works on image systems engineering applications. In addition to empirical measurements, his lab maintains an extensive set of software tools for creating digital twins of imaging systems. These tools are open-source and freely available in Image Systems Engineering Toolbox (ISETCam) and related repositories (e.g., ISETBio, ISET3d, ISETLens, ISETAuto). These tools are used to design and evaluate cameras used in a range of applications: consumer photography, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence for automotive applications.
Wandell’s work includes commercial applications including three companies that he co-founded, Imageval, LLC and Flywheel.io, and Image Data Management, LLC.
Read more on Prof. Wandell’s Biography Page.