Rufin VanRullen obtained a PhD in cognitive science under Simon Thorpe and then continued as a postdoc at Caltech. He joined the Brain and Cognition Research Center (CerCo) in Toulouse in 2001 as a Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Research Scientist. From 2005 to 2007, he was a visiting scientist at the Harvard Vision Lab, and in 2010 he became a CNRS Research Director.