Eero Simoncelli
Also known as E P Simoncelli, E. P. Simoncelli, E. Simoncelli, E.P. Simoncelli, Eero P Simoncelli, Eero P. Simoncelli
Eero Simoncelli is a computational vision researcher whose work connects visual image representation in machines and biological systems. He studied physics at Harvard, mathematics at Cambridge and electrical engineering at MIT before joining Penn and then NYU. His research includes multi-scale image representations and the SSIM model for image and video quality. He led the launch of Flatiron's Center for Computational Neuroscience, whose research aims to use brain models and neuroscience insights to improve and understand machine learning. He shared an Engineering Emmy for SSIM, and a 2024 ICLR Outstanding Paper recognized his coauthored analysis of diffusion-model generalization.
- Now at
- New York University and Simons Foundation
- Works
- 357
- Citations
- 100,192
- h-index
- 82
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1984–1993
Training across disciplines
He earned a physics degree at Harvard in 1984, studied applied mathematics at Cambridge on a Knox Fellowship, then received an M.S. in 1988 and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at MIT in 1993.
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Since 1986
Building visual representations
His master's thesis work began a long study of multi-scale, multi-orientation image representations. His later steerable pyramid supported translation- and rotation-invariant image analysis.
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1993–1996
Moving from Penn to NYU
He joined the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor in 1993 and moved to NYU in September 1996, joining the Sloan Center for Theoretical Visual Neuroscience.
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1996–2000
Research earns early support
At NYU, he received an NSF CAREER grant in 1996 and a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1998. He became an Associate Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000.
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2009–2015
Recognition for visual models
IEEE named him a Fellow in 2009 for contributions to statistical models of visual images. In 2015, he shared an Engineering Emmy with Zhou Wang, Alan Bovik and Hamid Sheikh for the Structural Similarity video-quality model.
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2021
A center for brain models
He led the launch of the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Neuroscience. The center set out to build computational models of brains and apply neuroscience insights to machine learning, including artificial neural networks.
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2024
Studying diffusion generalization
He coauthored “Generalization in diffusion models arises from geometry-adaptive harmonic representations,” which received an ICLR 2024 Outstanding Paper Award. The paper studies when image diffusion models memorize input images and when they generalize.
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As of October 2026
Leading at Flatiron and NYU
He is the scientific director of the Center for Computational Neuroscience at the Flatiron Institute and a professor of neural science, mathematics, data science and psychology at NYU.
Sources and credits
Photo: cns.nyu.edu; Eero Simoncelli, home page; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: cns.nyu.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.