Updated */**

ELIZABETH L. WALTER

541-***-**** abpmwn@r.postjobfree.com

http://www.elizabethwalter.com

User Experience and Vision Researcher

Elizabeth has ten years of experience designing, programming, analyzing and communicating the

results of interdisciplinary technical experiments aimed at understanding how people interact with

their visual world. She utilizes eye tracking, psychophysical behavioral methods, questionnaires and

neuroimaging. She enjoys communicating technical concepts to both specialized and lay audiences.

EDUCATION

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Ph.D. Cognitive Psychology March 2007

Dissertation title: Visuospatial contextual processing: Illusions, hidden figures and autistic traits

Relevant experience in: statistical analysis, cognitive psychology, eye tracking, systems neuroscience

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

B.A. Computer Science and B.A. Cognitive Science June 2001 magna cum laude

Thesis title: An fMRI investigation of conscious and unconscious visual processing

Relevant coursework in: software design, algorithms, psychology, neurobiology, linguistics

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Peaya Paper, Stanford, CA User Research Consultant January 2011 present

Document management and citation software allows biomedical researchers to organize technical articles

Conducted initial observational usability tests with beta-mode software for this start-up company

Responsible for participant recruiting and testing, task analysis and recommendations for alterations

Stanford University, Stanford, CA Postdoctoral Research Fellow July 2007 present

Designed, implemented and analyzed neuroimaging experiments probing social cognition in fragile X syndrome

Ensured that tasks were simple or included on-screen cues appropriate to the subjects capabilities

Educated families and worked one-on-one with participants to teach the research tasks and to collect data

Created and maintained written protocols for long-term studies of fragile X syndrome and autism

Stanford Graduate Summer Institute Green Technologies for Climate Stabilization September 2009

With engineering students, performed experiments using water as a thermal mass to stabilize indoor temperature

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Eye Tracking Lab Manager March 2007 June 2007

Helped set up and manage new shared eye tracking system (EyeLink 1000, tower mounted monocular eye tracker)

Created teaching materials and conducted one-on-one instruction for professors and graduate students

Created custom experiments for the research group using Eye Link software

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Action and Perception Lab Research Fellow Sept. 2001 March 2007

Performed psychophysical and neuroimaging experiments on over 300 volunteers (ages 8-50)

Discovered that one s tendency to systemize (find patterns) is correlated with susceptibility to visual illusions

Designed experiments and collected data using methodologies including: questionnaires, psychophysical

measurements, functional MRI, eye tracking (Eye Link II, binocular tracker) and magnetic stimulation

University of Washington, Seattle, WA CRA Distributed Mentor Project June Aug. 2000

Created a Java-based GUI to integrate existing anatomy databases to facilitate access to distributed datasets

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Dartmouth Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Sept 2000 March 2001

Designed experiments investigating visual perception and memory in healthy subjects and a split-brain patient

Discovered brain area near hippocampus that is involved in visual cross-form priming

Walter, Elizabeth 2

TEACHING

Stanford University, Stanford, CA Co-instructor Spring 2010

Co-instructor for Methods in Neuroimaging course

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Graduate Teaching Fellow Sept. 2001 March 2007

University course instructor for Biopsychology, Perception, Cognitive Science, and Exploring Consciousness

Lane Community College, Eugene, OR Graduate Teaching Fellow Jan. 2007 June 2007

Visiting course instructor for Social Sciences Division, taught Introduction to Psychology I and II

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Instructor Summer 2005

Visiting course instructor for Cognition

SELECTED NONTECHNICAL WRITING

Interviewed scientists and program directors to translate their research work for non-technical articles

Science for Citizens Website content contributor 2010 present

Weekly contributor to http://scienceforcitizens.net science blog

Stanford Scientific Magazine, Stanford, CA Science writer 2008 present

Rethinking Power: Stanford s Precourt Institute for Energy (2009)

From Model to Market: Stanford s Product Realization Network (2008)

Greater Good Magazine, Berkeley, CA Science writer 2007 2009

That s Gotta Hurt! (2009)

Tickled Pink: Why scientists want to make rats laugh (2008)

American Journal Experts, Durham, NC Manuscript Editor 2008 present

Edit manuscripts written by scientists who are non-native English speakers to improve grammar and flow

SELECTED SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

Hoeft, F.*, Walter, E.*, Lightbody, A.L., Hazlett, H., Patnaik, S., Piven, J. and Reiss, A.L. (2010).

Neuroanatomical differences in toddler boys with fragile X syndrome and idiopathic autism. Arch. Gen. Psych.

Walter, E.*, Mazaika, P.* and Reiss, A.L. (2009). Insights into brain development derived from monogenic

syndromes: Evidence from fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome, Turner syndrome and velocardiofacial

syndrome. Neuroscience, 164(1), 257-271.

Walter, E., Dassonville, P. and Bochsler, T. (2009). A specific autistic trait that modulates visuospatial illusion

susceptibility. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 339-349.

Walter, E. and Dassonville, P. (2008). Visuospatial contextual processing in the parietal cortex: An fMRI

investigation of the Roelofs Effect. NeuroImage, 42(4), 1686-1697.

*Co-first author; authors contributed equally

HONORS AND AWARDS

International Fragile X Conference Young Investigator Award (2010)

Bette and Al Moorman Young Investigator Award (2009-2010)

Recipient of competitive NIH Postdoctoral Training Fellowship (2007-2009)

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Intel Science and Engineering Fair, San Jose, CA Grand Awards Judge 2010

Judged high school students research projects in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category

Science is Elementary, Sunnyvale, CA Volunteer 2008 present

Teach science concepts to low SES elementary students one morning a month

APA Decade of Behavior, High School Outreach, Eugene, OR Volunteer 2005 2007

Lead hands-on demonstration of brain basics at local schools; coached Brain Bowl team (2007)

TECHNICAL SKILLS

EyeLink and ViewPoint (eye tracking collection and analysis)

SPSS, Excel (statistical analysis)

C++, Java, MatLab (flexible languages for programming, scripting and data analysis)

EPrime, Presentation (experimental design and presentation)

BrainVoyager, SPM, FSL, DTIStudio (neuroimaging analysis)

Familiar with XHTML, CSS, JavaScript (website development)

Contact this candidate