Charan Ranganath is the Director of the Memory and Plasticity Program and a Professor at the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California at Davis. He also the Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab, where he uses brain imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and computational modelling to study the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to remember past events and discover how these mechanisms can go awry in people with memory disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease.

His work has been recognised with numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Leverhulme Professorship at the University of Cambridge. When Ranganath isn't studying the mind, he plays in post-punk bands. He lives in California.