George R. Mangun

George R. Mangun is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neurology at the University of California, Davis, serving as Director of the Center for Mind and Brain and leading the NIH-supported Laboratory for the Neural Mechanisms of Attention. He founded the Center for Mind and Brain in 2002 and served as Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science from 2008-2015.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Neurosciences (Cognitive Neuroscience), University of California, San Diego (1987)
• B.S. in Chemistry (and Life Sciences), Northern Arizona University (1981)

Mangun's research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of attention, using EEG and fMRI to study how the brain selects and processes sensory information. His work focuses on neural mechanisms of attentional control, visual perception, and awareness, with applications to neurological and psychiatric disorders. He employs high-temporal-resolution electrophysiological methods combined with neuroimaging to identify brain systems involved in attention.

Recent publications emphasize neural oscillatory mechanisms (particularly alpha and theta rhythms) in top-down attentional control, decoding attentional states via machine learning, and exploring large-scale brain networks in voluntary attention. His work increasingly integrates cross-modal and feature-based paradigms to understand attentional flexibility.

His scientific honors include:

• Elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) (2007)
• Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2010)

Mangun directs the Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience (funded by NIMH, NIDA, and Kavli Foundation) and has secured continuous NIH support for his laboratory. He has served on numerous national and international advisory boards including NIH, National Academy of Sciences, and European Research Council. His textbook Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind (5th ed., 2019) is a field standard.

He leads the Center for Mind and Brain and Laboratory for the Neural Mechanisms of Attention, fostering interdisciplinary research in cognitive neuroscience through collaborative projects and training programs.