Cynthia F. Moss Explained

Occupation:Professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences, Neuroscience, and Mechanical Engineering
Education:B.S., Summa cum laude University of MassachusettsPh.D., Brown University
Alma Mater:Brown University
Discipline:Neuroscientist
Sub Discipline:Sensory information processing and adaptive motor control
Workplaces:
  • 1987-1988: Research Fellow, Brown University
  • 1989-1994: Assistant Professor, Harvard
  • 1994-1995: Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard
  • 1995-2014: Professor, University of Maryland
  • Since 2014: Professor of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University
Birth Place:Columbus, Ohio
Thesis Title:Hearing sensitivity and frequency selectivity in the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea
Thesis Year:1986
Doctoral Advisor:Andrea Megela Simmons
Parents:Howard A. and Adrienne H. Moss
Honorific Suffix:Professor
Spouse:Donald Berger
Children:Natalie Louise, Jackson Raymond and Peter Ethan

Cynthia F. Moss is an American neuroscientist and Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, with joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Mechanical Engineering. Moss is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America, and the International Society for Neuroethology. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of sensory-motor integration, scene perception, spatial attention, and spatial memory.

Early life and education

Born in Columbus, Ohio,[1] Moss is the daughter of Howard A. Moss and Adrienne H. Moss. Her brother Randolph Moss[2] is a judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Her brother Eric Moss is Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer of the Bank of Montreal.[3]

Moss graduated with a B.S. (Summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned a Ph.D. from Brown University.[4] After earning her graduate degree, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and later a Research Fellow at Brown University.[5]

Research and career

In 1989 Moss joined the faculty of Harvard University as an assistant professor. She became the Morris Kahn Associate Professor in 1994.[6]

Moss accepted a professorship in 1995 at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Systems Research. During her tenure at UMCP, she was Director of the interdepartmental graduate program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. She was named a professor emerita UMCP .[7]

In 2014, Moss joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University as Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.[8] She holds appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine.[9]

Moss's research seeks to understand the brain's representation of dynamic sensory information in the natural environment. Her research program uses the active sensing system of echolocating bats, gaining access to the sensory information these animals use to guide their behaviors.[10] [11] [12]

Echolocating bats produce high frequency sounds and extract information carried by echo returns to guide natural behaviors. Moss's lab group pioneered the use of synchronized high-speed video and microphone array recordings to quantify the bat's coordinated echolocation and flight behavior during target tracking and discrimination, obstacle avoidance, social interactions, and navigation.[13] [14]

Moss's research uses modern neuroscience tools to discover mechanisms of auditory scene analysis, spatial memory and navigation, representing stimulus space and orienting behaviors, sensorimotor transformations, object distance perception and tactile sensing.[15] [16]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

Awards and honors

External links

Notes and References

  1. Moss . Cynthia F. . 2001 . It Was a Bat Year . Wissenschaftskolleg Jahrbuch Arbeitsberichte . 128–130.
  2. Web site: Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments . 2024-09-01 . www.govinfo.gov.
  3. Web site: Bank of Montreal - 2019 Innovatio Award winner - 2019 Innovatio Awards: Company-wide leadership Canadian Lawyer . 2024-09-06 . www.canadianlawyermag.com.
  4. Web site: Theses and Dissertations, Brown University Library . 2024-08-31 . library.brown.edu.
  5. Web site: Episode 26: Cynthia Moss, PhD . 2024-04-24 . Conjugate: Illustration and Science Blog . en-US.
  6. Web site: Phi Beta Kappa - Cynthia Moss . 2024-04-29 . www.pbk.org.
  7. Web site: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program . 31 August 2024 . Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science.
  8. Web site: 30 November 2015 . Cynthia F. Moss, PBS faculty . Johns Hopkins Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences.
  9. Web site: 2015-11-30 . Cynthia Moss . 2024-04-24 . Psychological & Brain Sciences . en-US.
  10. Web site: Hopkins . Jill Rosen-Johns . 2018-04-11 . Scientists see neurons fire in brain of flying bat . 2024-08-06 . Futurity . en-US.
  11. Web site: 2007-05-09 . How bats 'see' their world . The Washington Times.
  12. Web site: Horowitz . Kate . 2016-09-15 . Hunting Bats Tilt Their Heads Like Puppies . 2024-08-06 . Mental Floss . en-US.
  13. Moss . Cynthia F. . October 2021 . Cynthia F. Moss . Current Biology . 31 . 20 . R1365–R1366 . 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.033 . 34699793 . 2021CBio...31R1365M . 0960-9822.
  14. Web site: News - Video - Cynthia Moss talks about how bats use echoes to picture and remember environments. NSF - National Science Foundation . 2024-09-04 . www.nsf.gov.
  15. Web site: Kirk . Will . 2024-04-11 . OneNeuro Profile: Cynthia Moss . 2024-09-04 . OneNeuro Initiative . en.
  16. Web site: Rosen . Jill . 2017-08-09 . Johns Hopkins team gets $1M grant to explore intricacies of bat navigation . 2024-09-04 . The Hub . en.
  17. Web site: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Cynthia F. Moss . 2024-09-04 . www.wiko-berlin.de . en.
  18. Web site: Raziano . Lauren . 2023-11-02 . Using Sound to Navigate the World: Cynthia Moss Explains Echolocation . 2024-04-29 . The Quadrangle . en-US.
  19. Web site: James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowship Recipients . 2024-08-30 . Association for Psychological Science - APS . en-US.
  20. Web site: Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars 2023-2024 . 2024-09-03 . PBK . en.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cynthia F. Moss".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.