Thomas Albright

Thomas D. Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Science at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he joined the faculty in 1986.

Albright is an authority on the neural basis of visual perception, memory and visually guided behavior. His laboratory seeks to understand how visual perception is affected by attention, behavioral goals, and memories of previous experiences. An important goal of this work is the development of therapies for blindness and perceptual impairments resulting from disease, trauma or developmental disorders of the brain. A second aim of Albright’s work is to use our growing knowledge of brain, perception and memory to inform design in architecture and the arts, to leverage societal decisions and public policy, and to advise on matters of law and justice.

Albright received a PhD in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Albright is a founding member and past-president of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. In this capacity, Albright has worked to integrate concepts, methods and discoveries from neuroscience research into the practice of architecture and design, with the goal of enriching human experience and improving behavioral outcomes in the built environment.