Steven Pinker

Canadian visual cognition and psycholinguistics expert Steven Pinker was born in Montreal in 1954. His work covers popular science, experimental psychology, linguistics and cognitive science, and he is currently a professor of psychology at Harvard. Prior to taking up this position, between 1982 and 2003 he was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor within the school s brain and cognitive science department. During his MIT tenure, Pinker took over as the director of the university s cognitive neuroscience center. In 2004 TIME magazine featured him on its list of the 100 most influential thinkers and scientists. His awards include a Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences and a Royal Institution Henry Dale Prize. Perhaps Pinker s best known work is his 2002 book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.