Ken Nakayama

Ken Nakayama
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHaverford College
UCLA
Known forProsopagnosia
Super recognisers
AwardsEdgar D. Tillyer Award (2017)
Scientific career
FieldsVision science
InstitutionsSmith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Harvard University
Doctoral advisorDonald B. Lindsley
Doctoral studentsPeter Ulric Tse
Sara Mednick

Ken Nakayama is an American psychologist. Prior to retirement he was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is now an emeritus professor at Harvard.[1]

Nakayama is known for his work on prosopagnosia (an inability to recognize faces) and super recognisers (people with significantly better-than-average face recognition ability).[2][3][4] A notable contribution is from his work on surface processing by the human visual system.[5][6]

Nakayama received his BA from Haverford College and PhD from UCLA. From 1971 to 1990, he was at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco. Since then, he has been at Harvard University.[7]

Nakayama helped in the formation and founding of the Vision Sciences Society and served as its first president. In 2016, the Society established the Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science in honor of his numerous significant contributions.[8] In 2017, he received the Edgar D. Tillyer Award from The Optical Society.[9]

  1. ^ "Ken Nakayama". Harvard University, Department of Psychology. Harvard University. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  2. ^ Song, Sora (17 July 2006). "Do I Know You?". Time. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  3. ^ Goldberg, Carey (14 June 2006). "When faces have no name". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  4. ^ Keefe, Patrick Radden (15 August 2016). "The Detectives Who Never Forget a Face". The New Yorker. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Ken Nakayama, OSA living history". OSA Living history. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  6. ^ "Visual surface representation: A critical link between lower-level and higher-level vision". scholar.google.de. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  7. ^ Nakayama, Ken (15 September 2021). "Coming of Age in Science: Just Look?". Annual Review of Vision Science. 7 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1146/annurev-vision-100419-120946. ISSN 2374-4642. PMID 34086479. S2CID 235347640. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  8. ^ "The Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science". Vision Sciences Society. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Edgar D. Tillyer Award". The Optical Society. Retrieved 7 March 2018.