My main research interests are in cognitive neuroscience; however, I have been exposed to many disciplines during my academic career. During the first few weeks of my 1st undergraduate year, I changed majors from engineering to mathematics; however, by the end of my first year, I was confident that psychology was the field for me. Given the choice of a BA or BSc degree stream, I chose the BSc, but for my undergraduate thesis, studied a topic related to both personality and social psychology: gender roles, albiet under the supervision of a professor in animal learning. In 1992, I received a bachelors of science degree in psychology from the University of Western Ontario (in London, ON).

In 1993, worked for a year at a landscaping nursery, both to get out of debt and to gain some perspective on career choices. I decided to pursue graduate training in quantitative psychology at Purdue University. After six months, though, it became clear that quantitative was not the right fit for me. I moved back to London to find a job and was offered a research assistant position in Doreen Kimura's neuropsychology laboratory. Her study of the biological basis of sex differences fit well with my previous interest in gender roles and shortly thereafter (1994) I enrolled in graduate school at UWO as a student Doreen's lab. I received a master of science degree in neuroscience under her supervision in 1996 ("Factors influencing sex differences in object location memory").

Doreen was due to retire one year later and I again found myself at a crossroads. Rather than switching supervisors, I left graduate school and started up a partnership in a landscaping business (again in Sarnia). It was not long before research drew me back to UWO, where I worked as a research assistant in Mel Goodale's action and perception laboratory. I soon decided (1997) to continue my graduate training and pursue my new interest in cognitive neuroscience. In 2001, I received my PhD in neuroscience under Mel's and Keith Humphrey's supervision ("fMRI response characteristics of object-processing regions of the brain"). During my time at UWO, I had several other mentors, including Ravi Menon, Joseph Gati, Tutis Vilis, Ken McRae, Susan Lederman, Frances Wilkinson, and Hugh Wilson.

After receiving my PhD, I decided to stay in the field of cognitive neuroscience. I pursued postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University under the supervision of Isabel Gauthier in her Object Perception laboratory. While at Vanderbilt, I collaborated extensively with Randolph Blake and members of his laboratory. In 2004, I accepted a position as assistant professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. In 2011, I was promoted to associate professor with tenure.