Draft:Cynthia Moss (neuroscientist)

Cynthia F. Moss is an American neuroscientist and professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, with additional affiliations in neuroscience and mechanical engineering. Moss holds memberships in professional societies, including being a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), the Acoustical Society of America (2001), and the International Society for Neuroethology Her research focuses on the mechanisms of sensory-motor integration, scene perception, spatial attention, and memory.

Education
Moss graduated with a B.S. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned her Ph.D. from Brown University. Following graduation, she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tubingen, Germany and later as a Research Fellow at Brown University before assuming a faculty position at Harvard University. During her time at Harvard, Moss was honored with the Phi Beta Kappa teaching award (1992) and appointed as the Morris Kahn Associate Professor. Additionally, she received the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award.

Moss worked at the University of Maryland, where she held a professorship in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Systems Research During her tenure at Maryland, she took on the role of Director of the interdepartmental graduate program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. In recognition of her scholarly contributions, Moss was bestowed with the University of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Research and Creativity in 2010.

In 2014, Moss joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University including the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine. Notable accolades in recent years include the Hartmann Award in Auditory Neuroscience (2017) and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize (2019).

Research and Career
Moss’ research seeks to address questions relating to the brain’s capability of representing dynamic sensory information from the natural environment and the sensory and motor activity patterns that work together to mediate actions in three-dimensional space. Her lab primarily focuses on studying bats to answer these questions. Through exploitation of echolocation and other sensory-directed behaviors of bats–detected via high-speed audio and video recordings–Moss’ lab can analyze social interactions, target discrimination and tracking, obstacle and avoidance, and navigation of these animals.

Specifically, these neural recordings focus on three primary brain regions: the hippocampus, midbrain superior colliculus and somatosensory cortex. Moss researches hippocampal activity in freely echolocating bats and has found that hippocampal place cells are implicated in spatial navigation and memory. Additionally, current research projects and goals are centered on the mechanisms of sensorimotor integration, scene perception, spatial attention, and memory.

Awards and honors

 * 2012- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 * 2017- Hartman Award in Auditory Neuroscience
 * 2019- Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize
 * Phi-Beta-Kappa Scholar

Books
Moss, C. F., & Shettleworth, S. J. (Eds.). (1996). Neuroethological studies of cognitive and perceptual processes. Westview Press.

Thomas, J. A., Moss, C. F., & Vater, M. (Eds.). (2002). Echolocation in Bats and Dolphins. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3612864.html