Nicole C. Rust
{{short description|American neuroscientist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Nicole C. Rust
| image =
| fields = Neuroscience, Psychology
| workplaces = University of Pennsylvania
| alma_mater = University of Idaho
New York University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| academic_advisors = J. Anthony Movshon
Eero P. Simoncelli
James DiCarlo
| known_for = Visual Perception,
Visual Recognition Memory
| awards = Simons Pivot Fellow,
Troland Research Award,
McKnight Scholar,
NSF CAREER Award,
Sloan Fellow
| website = {{URL|https://www.nicolecrust.com/}}
}}
Nicole C. Rust is an American neuroscientist, psychologist, and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn't Solved Brain Disorders and How We Can Change That.{{Cite web|title= Elusive Cures|url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/2580286/books|access-date=2025-05-11|website=www.arabnews.com}} She studies visual perception, visual recognition memory, and mood (psychology). She is recognized for significant advancements in experimental psychology and neuroscience.{{Cite web|title= Academy honors 20 for major contributions to science| url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/naos-ah2012121.php|access-date=2021-01-24|website=www.eurekalert.org}}
Rust was the recipient of the 2021 Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences for her fundamental contributions to understanding how the cortex makes use of complex visual information to guide intelligent behavior.{{Cite web|title=20210 Troland Research Award|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/2021-awards/Rust.html|access-date=2021-01-24|website=nasonline.org}} She was named a Simons Pivot Fellow in 2025,{{Cite web|title=Simons Foundation Announces Third Class of Pivot Fellows|url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2024/11/05/simons-foundation-announces-third-class-of-pivot-fellows/ |access-date=2025-05-11|website=www.simonsfoundation.org}} a McKnight Foundation Scholar (2013),{{Cite web|title=McKnight Scholar Awardees|url=https://www.mcknight.org/programs/the-mcknight-endowment-fund-for-neuroscience/scholar-awards/awardees|access-date=2021-01-24|website=www.mcknight.org}} received an NSF CAREER Award (2013){{Cite web|title=NSF CAREER Award Abstract #1265480|url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1265480&HistoricalAwards=false|access-date=2021-01-24|website=nsf.gov}} and was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2010).{{Cite web|title=Past Sloan Fellows|url=https://sloan.org/past-fellows|access-date=2021-01-24|website=sloan.org|language=en}}
Education and early career
Rust received her bachelor's degree in from the University of Idaho in 1997.{{Cite web|title=Nicole Rust Biography|url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/psych/rust-lab/people.html|access-date=2021-01-24|website=sas.upenn.edu}} She then went on to receive her PhD in Neuroscience from New York University in 2004 under the mentorship of J. Anthony Movshon, and Eero Simoncelli.{{Cite web|title = Simons Foundation|url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/people/nicole-rust/ |access-date=2021-01-24|website=simonsfoundation.org}} There, her work focused on how the primate brain processes information about visual motion, including in the primary visual cortex{{cite journal | last1 = Rust | first1 = NC | last2 = Schwartz | first2 = O | last3 = Movshon | first3 = JA | last4 = Simoncelli | first4 = EP | year = 2005| title = Spatiotemporal Elements of Macaque V1 Receptive Fields | journal = Neuron | volume = 46 | issue = 6 | pages = 945–956 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.021| pmid = 15953422 | s2cid = 1616716 | doi-access = free }} and area MT.{{cite journal | last1 = Rust | first1 = NC | last2 = Mante | first2 = V | last3 = Simoncelli | first3 = EP | last4 = Movshon | first4 = JA | year = 2006| title = How MT cells analyze the motion of visual patterns | journal = Nat Neurosci | volume = 9 | issue = 11 | pages = 1421–31 | doi = 10.1038/nn1786 | pmid = 17041595 | s2cid = 448010 }}
Career and research
Rust completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 2004 and 2006. There she worked under the mentorship of James DiCarlo, studying how the brain identifies the objects that are present in a visual scene.{{Cite journal|last1=DiCarlo|first1=JJ|last2=Zoccolan|first2=D|last3=Rust|first3=NC|year = 2012|title = How does the brain solve visual object recognition? |journal=Neuron|volume=73|issue=3|pages=415–434|doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2012.01.010|pmid=22325196|pmc=3306444|doi-access=free}}
Rust joined the faculty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Her lab has focused on understanding how the brain uses visual information to solve different tasks, including finding sought objects{{cite journal | last1 = Pagan | first1 = M | last2 = Urban | first2 = LS | last3 = Wohl | first3 = MP | last4 = Rust | first4 = NC | year = 2013| title = Signals in inferotemporal and perirhinal cortex suggest an untangling of visual target information | journal = Nature Neuroscience | volume = 16 | issue = 8 | pages = 1132–1139 | doi = 10.1038/nn.3433| pmid = 23792943 | pmc = 3725208 }} and remembering the images that have been encountered.{{cite journal | last1 = Meyer | first1 = T | last2 = Rust | first2 = NC | year = 2013| title = Single-exposure visual familiarity judgments are reflected in IT cortex | journal = eLife | volume = 7 | pages = e32259 | doi = 10.7554/eLife.32259| pmid = 29517485 | pmc = 5843407 | doi-access = free }}
Rust's group also creates machine learning algorithms that mimic neural circuits of memory.{{Cite journal |last1=Jaegle |first1=Andrew |last2=Mehrpour |first2=Vahid |last3=Mohsenzadeh |first3=Yalda |last4=Meyer |first4=Travis |last5=Oliva |first5=Aude |last6=Rust |first6=Nicole |date=2019-08-29 |title=Population response magnitude variation in inferotemporal cortex predicts image memorability |journal=eLife |volume=8 |pages=e47596 |doi=10.7554/eLife.47596 |issn=2050-084X |pmc=6715346 |pmid=31464687 |doi-access=free }}
Science communication
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Rust is the author of the book Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn't Solved Brain Disorders and How We Can Change That. {{Cite web|title= Elusive Cures|url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/2580286/books|access-date=2025-05-11|website=www.arabnews.com}} In it, she describes her personal journey to understand why brain research has been accelerating rapidly for decades, but the translation of discoveries into treatments and cures has not happened as many expected. She argues that treating a brain disorder is more like redirecting a hurricane than fixing a domino chain of cause and effect, and that only once we embrace the idea of the brain as a complex system do we have any hope of finding cures.
References
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Category:University of Idaho alumni
Category:New York University alumni
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:American science writers
Category:American neuroscientists
Category:American women scientists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)