Susana and Stephen are Professors of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Physiology and Pharmacology at
the State University of New York, where they study various aspects of perceptual and cognitive
neuroscience.

Their research and outreach activities have been written up in hundreds of media stories, including
many that have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune,
The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Der Spiegel, New Scientist andWired magazine. Their TV
and radio appearances include the Discovery Channel's Head Games and Daily Planet shows, NOVA:
ScienceNow, CBS Sunday Morning, National Geographic’s StarTalk, NPR's Science Friday, and
PRI's The World.

Both are frequent contributors to Scientific American. They wrote the Illusions column for Scientific
American Mind from 2010 through 2017, and they continue to write the weekly Illusion Chasers blog
for the Scientific American blog network. Their Illusions articles have been compiled in three Scientific
American special issues, published in 2010, 2013, and 2016.

Susana and Stephen are founding board members of the Neural Correlate Society, and Susana
serves as its President. The NCS hosts the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest, currently
in its 13th edition. The contest’s website maintains an archive of +100 illusions and their scientific
underpinnings, and receives over a million hits per year.

Both have received Empire Innovator Scholar Awards from the State of New York.
Susana’s distinctions also include the Eyetrack Award for her research on Parkinsonian patients,
and the 100 Spaniards Prize. She is the 2014 recipient of the Science Educator Award, given by the
international Society for Neuroscience to an outstanding neuroscientist who has made significant
contributions to educating the public. Stephen received the Research Initiative Award from the
American Epilepsy Society. They have each authored over 100 academic publications, which include
contributions to Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, and the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Their previous book, Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday
Deceptions (Holt, 2010), was an international bestseller: published in 21 languages, distributed
worldwide, listed as one of the 36 Best Books of 2011 by The Evening Standard, London, and winner
of the Prisma Prize to the best science book of the year.

Susana and Stephen serve on multiple editorial and advisory boards for conferences, foundations
and other institutions. They are magician members of the Academy of Magical Arts (aka the Magic
Castle of Hollywood), the UK’s Magic Circle, the Society of American Magicians, and the International
Brotherhood of Magicians.

Stephen is Director of the Laboratory of Translational Neuroscience at SUNY DMC. He received a B.A.
in Psychobiology, Psychology, and Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D.
in Neurobiology at Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Nobel Laureate Prof.
David Hubel at Harvard Medical School, and also with Prof. Zach Mainen at Cold Spring Harbor Lab.
Before moving to New York in 2014, Stephen led laboratories at University College London and the
Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, AZ.

Susana is Director of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience at BNI. She received a B.S. in
Experimental Psychology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Ph.D. in Medicine and
Surgery from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She was a postdoctoral fellow
with the Nobel Laureate David Hubel at Harvard Medical School, and then an Instructor in Neurobiology,
also at Harvard. She directed laboratories at University College London and the Barrow Neurological
Institute from 2001 to 2014, before assuming her current professorship at SUNY DMC.
Susana and Stephen live on Brooklyn with their three children.