Charan Ranganath, PhD

Charan Ranganath is Director of the Memory and Plasticity Program and a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of California at Davis. He has been a pioneer in the use of brain imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to remember past events, also known as “episodic memory.” Dr. Ranganath’s lab is investigating how memory is affected by emotion, stress, and curiosity, how memory changes with healthy aging, and how memory is affected by disorders such as epilepsy, stroke, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, his lab is using their basic science advances to develop innovative new approaches to improve artificial intelligence, education, and to enhance episodic memory in healthy people and in those suffering from memory disorders.

Dr. Ranganath has received many awards, including the Samuel Sutton Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution to Human ERPs and Cognition, the Young Investigator Award from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and a Guggenheim fellowship. He was designated as a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow by the US Department of Defense, as a Visiting Professor and Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Sage Center Distinguished Fellow based on his innovative scientific research. He has served as an editor for major neuroscience journals (NeuroImage and the Journal of Neuroscience), and has consulted for neuroscience research funding agencies across the world. His research is currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging, the Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Research Labs. Dr. Ranganath has served on several review panels for the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation.

Graduate group affiliations:

• Neurosciences Graduate Group (GNES)
• Psychology Graduate Program (GPSC)