Martin S. Banks received his Bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in 1970, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Physics. After a year teaching in Germany, he went to UC San Diego and received a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology in 1973. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 1976 University of Minnesota. He was Assistant and Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Texas at Austin from 1976-85. He moved to UC Berkeley in 1985 where he has been Associate and Full Professor of Optometry and Vision Science until now. He was Chairman of the Vision Science Program from 1995-2002, and in 2012.

Banks has done basic research on human visual development and on visual space perception in adults, particularly the perception of self-motion and of depth from binocular disparity. He has also done basic research on the integration of sensory information from different sources. Most recently, he has been engaged in basic and applied research on the development and evaluation of visual displays including virtual and augmented reality.

Banks is a Fellow of OSA and recipient of the Edgar D. Tillyer Award “for applying an innovative and rigorous scientific approach to make significant contributions in the fields of visual development, sensory cue combination and 3D vision.”