Wednesday, June 1, 2022, 2:30 – 4:00 pm EDT, Zoom Session

Organizers: Takuma Morimoto, University of Oxford; Doug Addleman, Dartmouth College
Moderator: Doug Addleman, Dartmouth College
Speakers: Blaire Dube, The Ohio State University; Masataka Sawayama, Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest; Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Promoting diversity and inclusion is a key consideration in building a strong scientific community. This year’s event will focus on accessibility in the vision science community for three groups: (i) researchers with sensory loss and other disabilities, (ii) first-generation students, and (iii) non-native English speakers. We will discuss barriers that underrepresented researchers might experience and seek potential solutions to mitigate or eliminate those barriers. Introductory presentations from panelists will be followed by small group discussion in breakout rooms. There will be a concluding roundtable discussion with the panelists about the problems and insights brought up in these smaller groups. Through this event, we seek to raise awareness of these issues and help VSS as a society and individual members to improve accessibility in their scientific communities. This event addresses the concerns of early career researchers but should be of interest to researchers at all career stages.

Blaire Dube

The Ohio State University

Blaire Dube, is a 3rd year Postdoctoral Fellow in Julie Golomb’s lab at The Ohio State University. She studies interactions between visual attention and visual working memory during goal-driven behavior using behavioral, eye-tracking, computational modeling, and fMRI methods. She is also a previous OPAM organizer and is passionate about supporting early-career researchers and increasing accessibility in her scientific communities. Blaire is a first-generation academic with perspectives on hidden curriculum and barriers inherent in academia.

Masataka Sawayama

Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest

Masataka Sawayama, is a postdoctoral researcher at INRIA, France. During his career, he has mainly focused on understanding functional mechanisms underlying the perception of object attributes such as material, color, texture, or shape. He has recently engaged in integrating vision science and machine learning methodologies to contribute to scientific advances in both research areas. He grew up in Japan and received his Ph.D. from Chiba University in Japan. He moved to INRIA to pursue his postdoctoral research.  Contact Masataka at 

Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Yueh-Hsun (Walter) Wu is currently a Psychology Ph.D. candidate with a Translational Sensory Science minor at the University of Minnesota. Walter is also one of the founding members of the International Network of Researchers with Vision Impairment and their Allies (INOVA). Walter’s research focuses on different topics related to the impact of impaired vision on daily activities, and the usage of assistive technologies in people with low vision.
 

Doug Addleman

Dartmouth College

Doug Addleman is a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College, before which he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. He studies selective attention, focusing on experience-driven attention, attention in multiple modalities, and the effects of vision loss on spatial attention. As a member of the VSS Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee, Doug is committed to advocating for the diverse interests and identities of vision scientists in training.