Steven Quartz is Professor, division of humanities and social sciences at the California Institute of Technology and a member of the computational and neural systems program. His research uses advances and methods in neuroscience to probe fundamental problems of the mind, ranging from how the mind emerges from the developing brain to how we make decisions, from individual decision-making under uncertainty to moral decision-making. Quartz is also director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and principal investigator of the NSF IGERT Ph.D. grant and the Brain, Mind, and Society Ph.D. program, which provides innovative, interdisciplinary training opportunities to prepare a new generation of scientists with both the analytic foundations and the experimental skills needed to pursue careers at the intersection of neuroscience and the social sciences. The recipient of many awards, he has been an advisor to the National Science Foundation. He is co-author (with Terrence Sejnowski) of Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Become Who We Are.

Favorite Films:

Claire’s Knee and Adaptation.