Cynthia F. Moss is now at Johns Hopkins University, where she is Professor and Chair of Psychological and Brain Sciences, with joint appointments in Neuroscience and Mechanical Engineering. At Johns Hopkins, she directs the Comparative Neural Systems and Behavior Laboratory, aka the Bat Lab. Moss received a B.S. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Ph.D. from Brown University. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and a Research Fellow at Brown University before joining the faculty at Harvard University. At Harvard, Moss received the Phi Beta Kappa teaching award and was named the Morris Kahn Associate Professor. She also received the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award. She later moved to the University of Maryland, where she was a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Institute for Systems Research. At Maryland, Moss served as Director of the interdepartmental graduate program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS). She was recognized in 2010 with the University of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Research and Creativity. In 2014, Moss joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, where she enjoys teaching and research collaborations with students, postdocs and faculty in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine. Her recent awards include the Hartmann Award in Auditory Neuroscience (2017), the James McKeen Cattell Award (2018) and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize (2019). She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America and the International Society for Neuroethology.
The overarching goal of research in my lab is to understand the mechanisms of spatial perception, attention and memory, and the contribution of these processes to navigation in complex 3-D environments. Our empirical studies exploit an animal model that provides explicit information about the signals used to guide behavior through its active sensing system. This animal model, the echolocating bat, coordinates its sonar signals with flight maneuvers in response to dynamic echo information, and exhibits a rich display of natural sensory-guided behaviors. Using the bat model system, our research program integrates behavioral, neurobiological, and computational studies of scene analysis, space representation, decision-making, sensorimotor integration and flight control. We have established methods to synchronize multi-channel wireless neural recordings from free-flying bats, high-speed video and microphone array recordings, which allows us to study brain systems in animals engaged in natural behaviors.
| Campus | Past Director of NACS Program |
| National | Acoustical Society of America Technical Council Chair |
| Professional | Associate Editor, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters |
| Professional | Associate Editor, Behavioral Neuroscience |
