astronomy

Teresa Puthussery

Teresa Puthussery is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Teresa Puthussery rather than just read about it. In short: Teresa Puthussery (born 1978 or 1979) is an Australian-born vision scientist and an associate professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Much of her work concerns retinal ganglion cells in primates.

Key takeaways

Teresa Puthussery belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Teresa Puthussery to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Teresa Puthussery from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Teresa Puthussery (born 1978 or 1979) is an Australian-born vision scientist and an associate professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Much of her work concerns retinal ganglion cells in primates. In 2025, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Biography Puthussery was raised in Warragul, Victoria Australia. Her mother was a math teacher and her father was a science teacher. Puthussery studied at the University of Melbourne, Australia, graduating with a B.S. in 2000, a PhD in 2005, and a postgraduate degree in 2006. Before becoming a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, she was a postdoctoral research fellow and later an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Selected publications Puthussery, T., Gayet‐Primo, J., Taylor, W. R., & Haverkamp, S. (2011). Immunohistochemical identification and synaptic inputs to the diffuse bipolar cell type DB1 in macaque retina. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 519(18), 3640–3656. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.22756 Puthussery, T., Venkataramani, S., Gayet-Primo, J., Smith, R. G., & Taylor, W. R. (2013). NaV1.1 channels in axon initial segments of bipolar cells augment input to magnocellular visual pathways in the primate retina. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(41), 16045–16059. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1249-13.2013 Puthussery, T., Percival, K. A., Venkataramani, S., Gayet-Primo, J., Grünert, U., & Taylor, W. R. (2014). Kainate Receptors Mediate Synaptic Input to Transient and Sustained OFF Visual Pathways in Primate Retina. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(22), 7611–7621. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4855-13.2014 Wang, A. Y. M., Kulkarni, M. M., McLaughlin, A. J., Gayet, J., Smith, B. E., Hauptschein, M., McHugh, C. F., Yao, Y. Y., & Puthussery, T. (2023). An ON-type direction-selective ganglion cell in primate retina. Nature, 623(7986), 381–386. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06659-4

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Teresa Puthussery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Teresa Puthussery claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Teresa Puthussery before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Teresa Puthussery ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Teresa Puthussery

In research: Teresa Puthussery appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Teresa Puthussery in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Teresa Puthussery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1970s births, Living people, MacArthur Fellows, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Teresa Puthussery outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Teresa Puthussery in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Teresa Puthussery means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Teresa Puthussery out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Teresa Puthussery in simple terms?

Why does Teresa Puthussery matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Teresa Puthussery?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Teresa Puthussery.