Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD

Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist and cognitive neuroscientist, is the interim director of the University of Connecticut, Waterbury. She is a professor of psychological sciences and director of the Brain Imaging Research Center at UConn. She is also director of the Laboratory for Learning Engineering and Neural Systems (brainLENS) at UConn/UCSF. She plays leadership roles at UCSF Dyslexia Center and at Haskins Laboratories. Her research focuses on the brain mechanisms underlying learning, reading acquisition, and dyslexia, as well as concepts like motivation and resilience. Her team develops tools like a school readiness and dyslexia screener app and a toolkit that assesses socio-emotional competencies. Hoeft has published 130+ articles, reviews, and book chapters. She has delivered keynotes, talks, and workshops at schools, international conferences, TEDx, and the White House. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, NPR, CNN, the New Yorker, and Scientific American. Hoeft earned her degrees from Keio University in Tokyo. She received research training at Harvard, Caltech, and Stanford, and served on the faculty at Stanford and UCSF.