New Leaders for a Strong Community

Holt and Fiez to lead a reimagined neuroscience partnership. Two neuroscience powerhouses, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, have a long-standing partnership in the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) , a 28-year-old neuroscience research and education program. After a yearlong reimagining process, the universities have announced that Lori Holt of CMU and Julie Fiez of Pitt are the new leaders of what they call "the world's most exciting and neighborly playground for pioneering research and training in the neural basis of cognition." The center leverages CMU's strong cognitive and computational neuroscience programs with Pitt's basic and clinical neuroscience expertise. It provides a way for students and faculty to connect formally and informally, including graduate training, undergraduate research opportunities and collaboration clusters , which encourage joint publications and grant submissions from the two universities. Holt, a professor in CMU's Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology , is an expert in auditory cognitive neuroscience with a focus on understanding how humans interpret the complexity of spoken language. She has been a longtime member of the center and welcomes the opportunity to strengthen existing ties. "The proximity, collegiality and complementary expertise of the two institutions makes Pittsburgh a truly unique place to study the neural basis of cognition," Holt said.