PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Talia Konkle

Talia Konkle is a vision scientist whose work connects AI models with questions about human visual perception. She completed a PhD at MIT in 2011, joined Harvard as an assistant professor in 2015, and became a tenured professor in 2023. Her 2012 study mapped how real-world object size shapes ventral temporal representations, and her 2025 work showed that fine-tuned feed-forward networks can support human-like contour integration. She received the Lila R. Gleitman Prize in 2023 and the Early Investigator Award in 2026, and is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Harvard's Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative.

Works
232
Citations
7,105
h-index
33

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2011

    A PhD in brain science

    She completes a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT in 2011 after undergraduate work in cognitive science and applied mathematics at UC Berkeley.

  2. 2012

    Mapping object size in cortex

    In 2012, she and Aude Oliva find that object representations are differentiated by real-world size, with big- and small-object responses arranged across ventral temporal cortex.

  3. 2015–2023

    From assistant to professor

    She serves as an assistant professor at Harvard from 2015 and becomes a fully tenured professor effective January 1, 2023.

  4. 2023

    The Gleitman Prize and Harvard roles

    She receives the inaugural Lila R. Gleitman Prize in 2023, becomes faculty director of Harvard's Mind Brain Behavior initiative, and joins the Kempner Institute's inaugural associate faculty cohort.

  5. 2024

    Computer vision models and brains

    In a 2024 interview, she explains that computer-vision models can help predict how brains function and give researchers new tools to study human vision.

  6. 2025

    Feed-forward contour integration

    She coauthors a 2025 study showing that fine-tuned feed-forward convolutional networks can support human-like contour integration, with receptive-field sizes progressing across layers.

  7. 2026

    Early Investigator Award

    The Society of Experimental Psychologists names her its 2026 Early Investigator Award recipient. Her research examines the cognitive and neural organization of high-level visual experience.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and MBB director

    As of October 2026, she is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard, a member of the Center for Brain Science and the Kempner Institute, and a vision scientist working at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and AI.

Career

  1. Since 2023Harvard UniversityProfessor of Psychology
  2. NowHarvard UniversityDirector, Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
  3. NowHarvard UniversityMember, Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence
  4. NowHarvard UniversityMember, Center for Brain Science
  5. From 2015Harvard UniversityAssistant Professor
  6. Harvard UniversityAssociate Faculty Member, Kempner Institute

Education

  1. 2011Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences
  2. University of California, BerkeleyUndergraduate studies in Cognitive Science and Applied Mathematics

From the biography.

Checked career sources: dspace.mit.edu, sepsych.org, cognitivesciencesociety.org, harvardmagazine.com, news.harvard.edu, konklab.sites.fas.harvard.edu.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Talia Konkle yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. The role of real-world size in object representation dspace.mit.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. 2026 SEP Awards sepsych.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. A Real-World Size Organization of Object Responses in Occipitotemporal Cortex dspace.mit.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Gleitman Prize - Cognitive Science Society cognitivesciencesociety.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. News in Brief | Harvard Magazine harvardmagazine.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Kempner Institute names four pioneering research scientists as associate faculty - Harvard Gazette news.harvard.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. What Computer Vision Models Reveal About Human Brains | Harvard Medicine Magazine magazine.hms.harvard.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. A feedforward mechanism for human-like contour integration | PLOS Computational Biology journals.plos.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Konklab konklab.sites.fas.harvard.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.