Jason Shepherd.

Jason Shepherd

Professor of neurobiology
University of Utah

Jason Shepherd is professor of neurobiology and holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair at the University of Utah. He obtained his B.Sc. (Hons) at the University of Otago, his Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shepherd is a recipient of the Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience, the International Society for Neurochemistry Young Scientist Lectureship Award, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award, the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, the Brain Research Foundation Scientific Innovation Award and the McKnight Foundation Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Award. He is also a National Academy of Sciences Kavli fellow.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Neuroscientist Julieta Sztarker holds an open-air teach-in for the general public in Plaza Italia in Buenos Aires.

Funding crisis in Argentina sparks new wave of protests

Two years after the country’s research funding collapsed, scientists are demonstrating against the government’s failure to restore previously cut scholarships and increase salaries as required by a 2025 law.

By Claudia López Lloreda, Natalia Mesa
8 May 2026 | 4 min read
Conceptual image of disjointed communication.

‘Slightly unhinged’ federal autism meeting portends unclear research priorities

The meeting last week sparked concerns about the latest Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee’s ability to perform its core function: developing a strategy to support autism research.

By Daisy Yuhas
7 May 2026 | 5 min read

Ehud Ahissar offers a new kind of dualism for neuroscience

He explains how “perceptual dualism” can account for the way we communicate via digital symbols and perceive the world via analog brain processes.

By Paul Middlebrooks
6 May 2026 | 102 min listen