Daniel A. Levy, PhD

Daniel A. Levy, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist. He investigates the processes and brain substrates of human memory and attention, how brain damage and neurological illness affect those cognitive abilities, and how they might be improved by physiological and behavioral interventions. He is also concerned with questions at the nexus of psychology and philosophy, such as free will, punishment, and personal identity. He previously served as associate professor, academic director of the international program, and Dean at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, and recently was a visiting associate professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.

Levy, who was born and grew up in New York City, originally studied education and biblical literature, and after moving to Israel in 1980, taught Jewish studies and worked in educational tourism. At age 40, motivated by philosophical curiosity, he switched gears and began to study the relationship between mind and brain. In 2002 he completed a PhD in cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Shlomo Bentin, and then did a post-doctoral fellowship at UC San Diego and the San Diego VA Hospital with Prof. Larry R. Squire.

The Memory Abilities and Processes Lab under Prof. Levy's direction explores the fundamental mechanisms of human memory, in a broad range of contexts, with the goal of better understanding how memories are made, maintained or changed, and retrieved. The lab is also interested in developing memory process-based applications to improve the efficacy of psychological interventions, and to support the memory skills of healthy older adults and individuals with neuropsychological challenges.

• PhD in Cognitive Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
• MA in Biblical Studies, Yeshiva University
• BA in Jewish Education, Yeshiva University

• Levy, D. A., & Shtoots, L. “The effects of post-learning theta tACS on navigation, new semantic learning, and tactile texture memory”. Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Memory Disorders Research Society, Montreal, October 2025.
• Peleg, O., Soret, R., Peysakhovic, V., Mirelman, A., Maidan, A., & Levy, D. A. “Remote gamified assessment of the impact of Parkinson’s Disease on attention”. Lecture at the International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Porto, September 2025.