Upon joining the biomedical engineering department at USC in 1994, he established the Laboratory for Neural Computation. His research centers on computational neuroscience and neural engineering, often involving the use of computer models to study brain function—for example, exploring how the massive computations carried out in the visual cortex allow a person to recognize objects at a speed and accuracy far beyond any technological capability. Dr. Mel won the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 1998. Before spending five years as a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Mel received his doctorate in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.