Melina Uncapher

Dr. Melina Uncapher is an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Neurology at University of California San Francisco, and leads the educational neuroscience efforts of the Cognitive Neuroscience division. Melina also holds an appointment as a Research Scientist at Stanford University. Melina is a neuroscientist with 14 yrs of experience at the forefront of learning and memory research, with a focus on understanding how attention affects learning. Recently she has turned her efforts to applying research to real-world problems by leading research and outreach programs in the fields of education, technology, and law. Education: Melina partners with educators throughout the country to design, implement, and assess education innovations that are grounded in the science of learning. She leads a multi-university Science of Learning network, funded by NSF, with investigators at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCSF, to study how executive function contributes to academic achievement. On the outreach side, she co-founded and is CEO of a science-for-good nonprofit that arms educators and students with practical tools based on the science of learning (scienceforgood.org). Technology: Melina investigates whether technology and media use are associated with cognitive and neural changes. She organized and co-chaired a global conference for the National Academy of Sciences on children and technology in Oct 2015, and is a founding board member of the Institute of Digital Media and the Child Development. Law: Melina works to bridge the fields of neuroscience and law, also via research and outreach. As a MacArthur Scholar, she supports the foundation's efforts to use neuroscience to guide law policy and practice. Funded by the foundation, she has led multi-year neuroimaging studies investigating memory issues that have relevance to legal policy and practice. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Science & Law, lectures regularly at law schools, and advises law enforcement officials.