Samuel Gershman.

Samuel Gershman

Professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science
Harvard University

Sam Gershman is professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. His lab studies the computational mechanisms of learning, memory, decision-making and perception. He is also affiliated with the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard. He is author of the 2021 book “What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic of Human Cognition.”

Gershman received his B.A. in neuroscience and behavior from Columbia University in 2007 and his Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University in 2013. From 2013 to 2015 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the brain and cognitive sciences department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Harvard University as assistant professor in 2015.

From this contributor

Illustration of a brain that is half organic texture and half geometric pattern.
The big picture

Trading places: What happens when neuroscience turns into machine learning, and machine learning turns into neuroscience?

By Samuel Gershman
23 March 2026 | 22 min read
Two scientists walk along interlocking rings.
Theoretical neuroscience

Breaking the barrier between theorists and experimentalists

By Samuel Gershman
24 February 2025 | 6 min read
Illustration of three figures cleaning data with brooms and brushes.
Open neuroscience and data-sharing

A README for open neuroscience

By Samuel Gershman
9 September 2024 | 5 min read

Selected articles

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of scientist in lab coat looking at shelves of computer network models.
Artificial intelligence

Mass-produced science is coming. What happens to scientists?

Artificial intelligence may soon enable researchers to generate high-quality science at a previously unimaginable speed. For science consumers—the public, medical patients, technology users—the likely effects will be positive. For scientists, the effects will be as disruptive as industrial mass production was for artisan manufacturers.

By Kenneth Harris
9 July 2026 | 9 min read
Adriano Aguzzi.
Ethics

Neuropathologist not guilty of research misconduct, says university probe

The investigation determined that seven papers by corresponding author Adriano Aguzzi have “scientifically significant” errors, which Aguzzi attributes to his former students.

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla
8 July 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of proliferating neural cells.
Spectrum

Diverse autism genes derail common developmental pathways

Multiple genetic mouse models initially show delayed cortical development, but the animals’ molecular trajectories diverge within weeks after birth, a new study finds.

By Holly Barker
8 July 2026 | 5 min read