Current Job Title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current website: jacksongravesphd.webnode.page
Favorite current project: In Michigan, our current project looks at harmony perception using chords and their “metamers”, stimuli that are physically different, but with equivalent outputs in an auditory model. We hope this will tell us more about how harmony (multiple simultaneous pitches) could be coded by the auditory system. We’re pretty excited about it!
If your current job isn’t your first position since leaving the University of Minnesota, where else have you worked? During my PhD, I spent 6 months in 2017 working with Dr. Barbara Tillmann and Dr. Anne Caclin at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL) in Lyon, France. This short stay produced a lot of continuing collaboration on projects about congenital amusia (tone deafness). After finishing my PhD in Minnesota, I then spent 5 years (2018-2022) as a postdoc in the Perceptual Systems Laboratory (LSP) of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. Working with Dr. Daniel Pressnitzer and Dr. Paul Egré, we used measures like pupillometry to identify signals of perceptual uncertainty.
When were you in the APC Lab? January 2011 – January 2018
What position did you have during your time at the APC Lab? I started in the lab as an undergraduate (2011-2012) doing a research project for my senior thesis. I liked it so much I then went on to do a PhD in the lab (2012-2018).
What was your favorite project/paper from your time in the APC Lab? I still remember working with Andrew and Christophe Micheyl on my senior thesis project, which ultimately became my first paper (2014, JEP:HPP). Meetings with Andrew and Chris where we puzzled things out together, drew on the whiteboard, debugged code, looked at the data in new ways and learned something for the first time – these still stick in my memory as the experiences that convinced me I wanted a career in science.
Favorite restaurant to grab a bite to eat in the Twin Cities/campus? You can’t beat the spicy falafel sandwich at Wally’s in Dinkytown! And it’s only a short walk from the APC lab.
Do you have any funny stories about your time in the lab to share? The funniest thing about the APC lab is how disturbing and unnatural it sounds when everybody sings Happy Birthday perfectly in tune. (Is this still true?) It’s a very generous lab: when I defended my PhD, the lab gave me some essential gifts for anyone about to live in France: a beret and a fake mustache. I kept them for Halloween costumes!
Favorite scientific conference to attend? Probably ASA, but it’s a tough choice between ASA and ARO!
Any words of advice for current students/researchers? Be kind to yourself and to your lab mates. Give grace and understanding to yourself and to your lab mates. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it, and don’t be too hard on yourself when things don’t go as smoothly as planned, because that’s a normal part of the process. We’re all figuring it out together.