Fall 2022 Institute Update
Fall is a season of new beginnings around campus and at the Wu Tsai Institute.
First, WTI launched the second year of faculty recruiting with an open-area, open-rank call for candidates from a broad range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) applied math, biology, cognitive science, computer science, data science, engineering, and psychology. Further, the Institute is starting the second WTI Postdoctoral Fellowships competition with a new dedicated track for computational scientists.
WTI also welcomes the first cohort of Wu Tsai Graduate Fellows: Shade Eleazer, Alex Esqueda, Rosa Grijalva, and Lester Rodriguez in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program; Sylvia Blackmore and Gloria Feng in Psychology; Xinyuan Zheng in Biomedical Engineering; Carlton Smith in Physics; and Yihan Bao in Statistics & Data Science. These nine students form the inaugural class of a community of graduate fellows in the Institute that will grow fivefold in the coming years. They join many existing and new students in Yale and other graduate programs whose interests transcend departmental and disciplinary boundaries to advance our understanding of human cognition.
As a reminder, the Wu Tsai Institute awards graduate fellowships through an open call to all PhD programs at Yale. Programs nominate applicants based on alignment with the WTI mission and commitment to diversity and inclusion. An Institute committee selects recipients and earns their program a bonus admission slot for an additional applicant whose interests align with the WTI mission. This further multiplies the number of graduate students at Yale interested in cognition. New for this year is that applicants can indicate their interest in being considered for a fellowship on the Graduate School application form, facilitating program review. The Institute encourages Wu Tsai Faculty Members involved in graduate recruitment to promote this generous opportunity to potential students and your departmental colleagues.
As these initiatives take root, so too does the physical headquarters of WTI at 100 College. The dozens of Wu Tsai Faculty Members who participated in photography for the new website might have caught a glimpse. Construction is well underway in what will become a rare building on campus that will house entire departments from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Psychology) and the School of Medicine (Neuroscience) alongside WTI, among current and future colleagues from several other departments.
The Institute worked closely with planners, architects, and contractors to make 100 College a welcoming and inspiring home, no matter where one is based at Yale. Shared spaces can host conferences, courses, and social events. Comfortable lounges and nooks enable extended visits, collaborative meetings, and spontaneous conversations. In addition, core facilities and services bring new technologies and support to Yale for next-generation data acquisition and analysis across scales—more information to come ahead of the planned move into 100 College in Summer 2023.
