Michael Barnett

About Me

I am a Staff Human Vision Scientist at Magic Leap on the Quantified Experience team working on studying visual perception to improve product design for augmented reality wearables. Previously, I was a Senior Vision Scientist at J&J Vision Care on the lens design team. I completed my Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where I was co-advised by David Brainard and Geoffrey Aguirre. My research interests are in using psychophysics, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to study color perception and, more broadly, visual processing.

Before grad school, I was a lab manager for Kalanit Grill-Spector at Stanford University. During this time, I examined both the development of high-level vision and the microarchitecture of functional regions in the human cortex. Prior to being a lab manager, I was a research assistant for Emily Grossman at UC Irvine, where I worked on understanding the neural representation of biological motion.

---

Work Experience:

2025 - Present Staff Human Vision Scientist, Magic Leap
2022 - 2025 Senior Engineer - Vision Science, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care

Education:

2022 - Ph.D., Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2013 - B.S., Biological Sciences, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA
2011 - A.A., Social and Behavioral Sciences, Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles, CA

Research Positions:

2013 - 2016 Lab Manager, Vision and Perception Neuroscience Lab, Stanford University
2011 - 2013 Research Assistant, Visual Perception and Neuroimaging Lab, UC Irvine

Fellowships & Awards:

2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2009 Pierce College / UC Berkeley Summer Internship in Neuroscience