Research

Robert Bernstein has an MS from UCSB Physics 1984 and a BS in Physics from MIT 1980. He is interested in the Hard Problem of Consciousness: How it is that we have phenomenal experience at all.

His career has primarily been directed at designing and developing research instruments, most notably atomic force microscopes, as a founding member of Digital Instruments with mentor Virgil Elings. Our instruments can measure to great precision and in domains that humans cannot directly perceive. And yet, as far as we know, they have no phenomenal experience.

His MIT Physics thesis with Ed Fredkin was directed at understanding the informational nature of the physical universe.

Robert has participated in UCSB Psychology seminars for over twenty years and attends major academic conventions on consciousness, such as the Tucson Conference and the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness conventions.

He hopes that collaboration with Jonathan Schooler and his research team can offer fundamental new insights into both physics and psychology.