Headshot of Nicole Rust

Nicole Rust

Professor of psychology, University of Pennsylvania;
Contributing editor, The Transmitter

Nicole Rust is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Her research focuses on understanding the brain’s remarkable ability to remember the things we’ve seen and using that knowledge to develop new therapies to treat memory dysfunction. She is also writing a book on the types of understanding of the brain that will ultimately be required to treat neurological and psychiatric conditions. In it, she argues that effective progress in brain research will require ambitious and unprecedented multidisciplinary conversations of the type that will appear in The Transmitter.

Rust received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from New York University and completed her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been recognized by the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences, the McKnight Scholar Award, a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the Charles Ludwig Distinguished Teaching Award, and election to the Memory Disorders Research Society.

Get alerts for essays by Nicole Rust in your inbox.

Subscribe to get notified every time a new essay is published.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of axons forming a path into brain metastases of small-cell lung cancer, integrating tumors into the brain.

Neurons fuel lung tumors that have spread to brain

Functional synapses between brain cells and cancer cells are key to the metastatic growth, according to new findings from two independent teams.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
6 October 2025 | 7 min listen
Composite of Autism Data Science Initiative researcher headshots.

Meet the Autism Data Science Initiative grantees

The awarded projects plan to study gene-and-environment interactions in people, stem cells and organoids, as well as predictors of positive life outcomes in autistic youth and adults.

By Calli McMurray
3 October 2025 | 2 min read
Stack of papers.

Exclusive: The 23 studies the FDA based its expanded leucovorin label on

The studies include 46 people, mostly toddlers, who have cerebral folate deficiency due to variants in a folate transporter.

By Claudia López Lloreda
2 October 2025 | 6 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.