Vincent Medina was born on October 24th, 1994 and raised in Coral Springs, Florida. He initially attended university at Rollins College before transferring to University of South Florida and earning an Aging Sciences B.S. in 2017. This move was motivated by existential crises about death by aging. His undergraduate research on cognitive aging made him curious about psychology, so he attended Seton Hall University next, where he earned an Experimental Psychology M.S. in 2019 on a full ride scholarship. His thesis on aging and memory was advised by Marianne Lloyd. He also did multisensory perception work for the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds during this time as he considered an industry career. Following graduation, he continued his training at the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Ph.D. program of Louisiana State University. He studied multisensory attention control under Emily Elliott, which makes Nelson Cowan his academic grandfather. At first, he prepared further for an industry career through a Naval Research Laboratory internship at NASA Stennis, but he left when he started to consider an academic career. This was in part due to his growing interest in scientific creativity, and in part inspired by his mentor. Emily Elliott showed him how an academic can be personable, kind, and intelligent all at once. He earned a Ph.D. in 2023 with a dissertation titled "Rethinking attention control: An individual differences approach" and joined the faculty at University of Central Arkansas that fall. His existential crises about death had grown at this point to include death by catastrophic threats. Now, he draws from cognitive science to conduct research on the psychology of existential risks. 

CV