Joshua Sariñana completed his PhD in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a photographer and writer, conducting interdisciplinary research on how science and technology shape cultural representation and lived experience. He began his career at the NASA Ames Research Center, co-authoring a Nature paper that provided the first conclusive evidence of sugar-related compounds in meteorites, deepening understanding of the extraterrestrial origins of life. He went on to study neuroscience at UCLA, MIT, and Harvard, where he investigated how dopamine modulates neural circuits underlying memory and spatial cognition.

Sariñana’s research places art, science, and communication in relation to broader systems of power through a humanities framework. He has directed projects that bring together poets, artists, and scientists to surface hidden connections that contest dominant narratives through multimodal media and public discourse. Currently, his work focuses on visualizing cognitive networks with qualitative research methods and artificial intelligence tools, translating participants’ internal representations into portraiture, network maps, audio narratives, and statistical analyses.

His art has been exhibited at Aperture Gallery, recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards, and published in Communication Arts magazine. He has provided his insights for WIRED Magazine, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and MIT Technology Review. Sariñana also served on the National Book Foundation’s 2025 Science + Literature Award committee.