Hope Vanderberg.

Hope Vanderberg

Copy chief
The Transmitter

Hope Vanderberg edits articles on The Transmitter for grammar, style and accuracy. Hope began copyediting for the Simons Foundation in 2010 as a freelancer and joined the Spectrum staff in 2013. Before that, she was editor of New Youth Connections, a teen-written magazine based in New York City. She also worked as senior projects editor at Medscape from WebMD.

Education

  • M.A. in science journalism, New York University
  • B.A. in biology, Earlham College

Explore more from The Transmitter

Hands cut a ribbon.

What Trump’s psychedelics executive order means for basic neuroscience

The order provides a potential path to remove some psychedelic drugs from the strictest regulatory category, yet it “may not be the breakthrough the basic research community has been looking for,” says neuroscientist Shawn Lockery.

By Calli McMurray
24 April 2026 | 4 min read
Research image visualizing neuronal activity.

Switching neural code may solve ongoing face-recognition debate

Face patch cells in macaque monkeys initially respond to images of any object but rapidly transition to attend to faces exclusively, a new study finds.

By Holly Barker
23 April 2026 | 5 min read

Liset de la Prida explains how neuron subtypes may control the activity of large neural populations, from manifolds to ripples

De la Prida's work analyzing the varieties of sharp wave ripples in the hippocampus led to her discovery that specific types of neurons control the properties of neural manifolds.

By Paul Middlebrooks
22 April 2026 | 104 min listen