Susana Martinez-Conde

Susana Martinez-Conde is a Spanish-American neuroscientist and science writer whose work focuses on perception, cognition, and the art of illusion. Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, where she directs the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience. She completed postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate David Hubel at Harvard Medical School and later served as an instructor in neurobiology at Harvard. Her research career includes leading laboratories at University College London and the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, before joining SUNY Downstate.

Martinez-Conde is the co-founder of neuromagic, a discipline that explores the neuroscience of magic and examines the brain mechanisms underlying the illusions used by magicians. Her research investigates how stage magic techniques can inform neuroscience, highlighting the shared interests between neuroscientists and magicians. She has also conducted research on fixational eye movements, studying how involuntary eye motion affects vision, perception, and visual processing.

Martinez-Conde is the author of the international bestseller, "Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions," which has been translated into multiple languages and recognized by London's Evening Standard. The book received the Prisma Prize for Best Science Book. Her second book, "Champions of Illusion: The Science Behind Mind-Boggling Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles," was published by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her academic work has appeared in Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Martinez-Conde has received the Science Educator Award from the Society for Neuroscience, Empire Innovator Scholar Awards from the State of New York, the EyeTrack Award for research on Parkinsonian patients, and the 100 Spaniards Prize. She is involved in public science outreach, serving as executive producer of the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest and collaborating with magicians and science museums to promote neuroscience literacy.

Martinez-Conde writes the Illusion Chasers column for Scientific American Mind. Her research has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and The Times of London, as well as on radio and television programs including Discovery Channel's "Head Games," NOVA: scienceNow, CBS Sunday Morning, and NPR's Science Friday. Through her research, writing, and public engagement, Martinez-Conde contributes to making neuroscience and the study of the human brain accessible to a broad audience.