Danielle Williams

Danielle is a philosopher of mind, neuroscience, cognitive science, and AI. Her research explores the relationship between various types of explanation and modeling strategies in the brain sciences including the model sharing strategy between AI and computational neuroscience. A reoccurring theme in her work is thinking about the use of computation to model and understand the mind and brain, what kind of explanation computational descriptions provide, what they can tell us about biological processes across contexts, and whether the success of computational models warrants ascribing computation to the systems they describe. ​Additionally, she's interested in the histories of cognitive science, neuroscience, and AI and how their history can shed light on the interconnected role of computer technology within each field, what the shared assumptions are and how they differ. This includes the connection between the early brain sciences and philosophy of mind. ​

Danielle grew up in California and managed to stick around until completing her PhD in 2023 at the University of California, Davis. Before coming to Purdue, Danielle was a postdoctoral research fellow at Washington University in St. Louis where she split her time between the philosophy department and the psychological & brain sciences department.