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Sam Wang is a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. An alumnus of the California Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. with honor in physics, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993. He conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University Medical Center and then at Bell Labs Lucent Technologies. In the mid-1990s, he also worked on science and education policy for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He joined the Princeton University faculty in 2000. He currently has affiliate appointments in the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the Center for Cognitive Science, the Program in Quantitative and Computational Biology, and the Center for Information Technology Policy. 

Prof. Wang’s lab investigates how brains learn from sensory experience, in adulthood and development, with relevance for autism. His neuroscience research has been recognized and supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the W.M.Keck Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation. He is also a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Medical Research and Treatment of Autism. He is also the author of two popular books, Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life (2008), which was named Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College (2011). The two books are available in over 20 languages.

To read more about Sam Wang’s application of data analytics to American politics, see the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.