Welcome! My name is Ben Balas, and I'm a Professor in the Psychology Department at NDSU. I'm the Principal Investigator of the Balas Lab for High-Level Vision at NDSU, and I teach courses at NDSU in Neuropsychology, Sensation & Perception, and Computational Methods. Below are just a few more things about who I am and what I do.
Follow me on Twitter (@bjbalas) for random observations about #visionscience, #comics, and #STEMEd, and please feel free to drop me a line at benjamin [dot] balas [at] ndsu [dot] edu, if you'd like to get in touch to talk more about the work we do in the Balas Lab.
Science
The Balas Lab at NDSU carries out research on topics in visual recognition, with a focus on face recognition and texture & material perception. We take a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach in our work, using psychophysics, EEG/ERP and eyetracking to study the development of visual recognition in school-age children and adults. If you're interested in the kind of work we do, you can check out my CV or visit our lab web page.
Art
Besides my scientific pursuits, I also really like making art, especially graphite drawing and papercraft/block-printing projects. You can see my favorite work at my drawing blog, which is updated approximately whenever I remember to make time to go draw something. Tune in during #Inktober to see me try to keep up with 31 days of ink drawings! It isn't always pretty, but it's usually interesting...
Fun & Games
I am also an avid D&D player and dungeon master, subscribe to far too many comic books at the incomparable Paradox Comics-N-Cards in Fargo, ND, and love tabletop strategy games, solving puzzles (especially the MIT Mystery Hunt), and picking out new stuff to read at the Fargo Public Library.