Stephen Macknik

Macknik’s research focuses on the neural bases of perceptual and cognitive illusions. He has studied visual masking illusions, the wakes and spokes illusion, and various illusions in stage magic. He writes the Illusions column for Scientific American: Mind.

Macknik and Martinez-Conde write a regular column for Scientific American: MIND on the neuroscience and perception of illusions. Their collected articles were published in two Scientific American special issues, in 2010 and 2013.

Macknik and Martinez-Conde have pioneered the study of stage magic techniques from a neuroscience perspective. They have proposed that neuroscientists and magicians share many overlapping interests, and that both disciplines should collaborate with one another to mutual advantage. Macknik and Martinez-Conde are credited with founding the discipline of Neuromagic as an area of scientific study devoted to unveiling the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of magic. Martinez-Conde and Macknik coined the term "Neuromagic" in a 2008 Scientific American article. They have conducted research in collaboration with many renowned magicians, including Teller from Penn & Teller, Mac King, James Randi, and Apollo Robbins. Macknik and Martinez-Conde’s neuromagic research is the focus of their award-winning book and international bestseller Sleights of Mind.

In 2001, Macknik moved to the United Kingdom, as a Lecturer in Ophthalmology and laboratory director at University College London. In 2004, he returned to the United States as an Assistant Professor, and later, Associate Professor, at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, where he directed the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology. In 2014, he moved to Brooklyn, NY, as Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, where he directs the Laboratory of Translational Neuroscience. He serves on the editorial board of the scientific journal PeerJ.

Stephen Louis Macknik (/ˈ m æ k n ɪ k / MAK -nik; born August 9, 1968) is an American neuroscientist and science writer. He is a Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, where he directs the Laboratory of Translational Neuroscience. He directed laboratories previously at the Barrow Neurological Institute and University College London. He is best known for his studies on illusions, consciousness, attentional misdirection in stage magic, and cerebral blood flow.

Stephen Macknik was born in 1968 in Dayton, Ohio, to an astrophysicist father and physical therapist mother. He grew up in Maui, Hawaii. Macknik completed a triple-major in Psychobiology, Biology, and Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1991. Thereafter, he completed his PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard University in 1996, under the supervision of Prof. Margaret Livingstone. He received his postdoctoral training from the Nobel Laureate Prof. David Hubel at Harvard Medical School, from 1996 to 2001.