Alisa Braun

Affiliation– NASA Ames Research Center

Division– Human Systems Integration Division (TH)

Email– alisa.m.braun@nasa.gov

Professional Bio

Dr. Braun is a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center and co-lead of the Human Perception and Performance Lab. She applies a broad toolkit of physiological metrics to support complex aerospace and aeronautics projects, ranging from vehicle handling studies to astronaut health on the ISS. While her primary subject matter expertise is in eye tracking, she has extensive experience across a wide range of other human performance and behavioral measures. She holds a Ph.D. in Vision Science from UC Berkeley, where she studied human visual perception.

Education

2024, Ph.D., Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

2018, B.S., Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Denver, Denver, CO

Professional Experience

2018-2020, Fellow, Princeton in Asia

Research Interests

Human Factors

Vision Science

Awards/Honors

Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, 2022

Young Investigator Award, Optical Society of America, 2021

Publications

Flynn-Evans, E. E., Braun, A. M., & Jansen, R. A. (2025). Sleep away from earth. Sleep medicine clinics, 20(1), 73-80.

Braun, A., & Sweeny, T. D. (2019). Anisotropic visual awareness of shapes. Vision research, 156, 17-27.

Conference Proceedings

Jansen, R. A., Braun, A. Glaros, Z. L., Zwart, S. R., Smith, S. M., & Flynn-Evans, E. E. (2024). Caffeine consumption aboard the International Space Station. SLEEP 38th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, Houston, TX. 

Braun, A., Groth, I., Otero-Millan, J., Tuten, W. S. (2023). Motion blur near the resolution limit of the parafoveal retina. Vision Science Society, St. Pete Beach.

Braun, A., Otero-Millan, J., Roorda, A., Tuten, W. S. (2021). The benefits of naturally moving over stabilized stimuli for acuity increase with longer presentation times. Optical Society of America’s Fall Vision Meeting, Virtual.

Braun, A., & Sweeny, T. D. (2019). Anisotropic visual awareness of shapes. Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete Beach, FL.