Alex Murphy is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, working on computational approaches to link brains and machines (deep neural networks) in order to explore the intersection between cognitive neuroscience & machine learning and how both fields can be guided by each other.  To understand how the brain processes language is a key interest of his, which has an important role in the neural substrates underlying reading and the mapping of perceptual inputs to higher cognitive processes of language. Alex’s postdoctoral project (supervised by Alona Fyshe) aims to model visual and linguistic data in brains and machines and to use knowledge from how humans read and process language / visual inputs in order to develop better technologies in the field of AI. This work also has a lot to say about some of the spatiotemporal dynamics involved in the acquisition of skills such as reading. He completed a PhD at the University of Birmingham in Cognitive Neuroscience & AI, as well as Masters degrees at the University of Copenhagen (IT & Cognition – MSc) and the University of Iceland / Reykjavík University (Language Technology – MA) and a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics at Bangor University, Wales.