Youssef Faragalla

Youssef is a PhD candidate in the neurosciences program at Stanford mentored by Stephen Baccus. His research explores how the retina and cortex encode and adapt to natural scenes, combining large-scale neural recordings, naturalistic stimuli, and interpretable machine learning models. He is particularly passionate about using computational approaches to uncover how information is transformed across the visual system—and how these insights can inform technologies such as neural prosthetics and biologically inspired AI. Youssef got his B.S. and M.S. in neuroscience from George Mason University. Prior to Stanford, he worked as a researcher at the NIH studying biophysics and as a technical lead in a medical device startup. He currently leads the MBCT seminar series to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between neuroscientists, computer scientists, and engineers. In his free time, he enjoys singing, playing soccer, traveling, and exploring the wonders of the Bay Area and California.