Susan G. Wardle, PhD

August 2026 update— I’m excited to be starting as an Assistant Professor in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Simons Empire Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).

The aim of my research in cognitive neuroscience is to understand how the human brain processes visual information. I’m particularly interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying our ability to recognize faces and objects. Towards this goal, I use neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, MEG), behavioral experiments, and computational tools to understand how brain activity gives rise to human behavior.

I completed my PhD in Australia at The University of Sydney followed by a postdoctoral position at UNSW Sydney and an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship at Macquarie University. In 2018 I moved to the States for a research fellow position in the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA.

You can watch a talk I gave on my research on face pareidolia here on YouTube.

Or, watch a short 5 min animated video I created in collaboration with TED-Ed about the science of face pareidolia– available on the TED-Ed website or on YouTube.