Brent Doiron, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
I completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Physics at the University of Ottawa, and later a postdoc at NYU. From 2007-2020 I was faculty in the Mathematics Department at the University of Pittsburgh, after which I moved to the University of Chicago where I am currently the Henrich Kluver Professor of Neurobiology and Statistics, and the director of the Grossman Center for Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior. My work focuses on how the complex circuit wiring of the nervous system supports rich, often stochastic dynamics, as well as drives neural computation. I have been fortunate enough to be awarded a Sloan fellowship, a Vannevar Bush Fellowship, and I am a Simons Foundation Investigator.
Current Members
Christoph Miehl, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D., Neuroscience
Focus: The main motivation of my research is to gain a mechanistic understanding of cortical computations, using simulations and mathematical tools. My focus lies on studying excitatory-inhibitory circuits with plastic synapses.
Email: cmiehl@uchicago.edu
Xinruo Yang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ph.D., Mathematics
Focus: Mean field theory of spiking neural networks and modeling of synaptic plasticity.
Email: xiy84@pitt.edu
Xueying Wang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D., Physics
Focus: My research interest lies in using tools from statistical physics to study complex, collective behavior of populations of neurons in the spatially extended system.
Email: xueying.wang@northwestern.edu
John Gengshuo Tian
Ph.D. Student | Computational and Applied Mathematics
B.S., Mathematics
Focus: Understanding the geometry of neural representation, in particular the aspect of variability, and how it can be instantiated in mechanistic circuit models.
Email: gtian@uchicago.edu
Peijia Yu
Ph.D. Student | Computational Neuroscience
B.S., Biology
Focus: Data analysis and spiking network based modeling of the correlated neuronal activity in mouse primary visual cortex.
Email: peijiay@uchicago.edu
Satchal Postlewaite
Ph.D. Student | Computational Neuroscience
B.S., Applied Mathematics in Computer Science
Focus: Using computational modeling to explore the neural circuit and synaptic plasticity mechanisms underlying associative learning. I also analyze neural data to study neural sensory processing.
Email: spostlewaite@uchicago.edu
Michelle Miller
Ph.D. Student | Computational Neuroscience
M.S., Beam and Accelerator Physics
Focus: I am interested in studying the canonical neural circuit motifs in cortex. In particular, the functional utility of such motifs and the emergent properties from their collective dynamics. I also analyze neural data to study neural sensory processing.
Email: mcmiller1@uchicago.edu
Shoshana Chipman
Ph.D. Student | Physics
B.A., Physics
Focus: The impact of noise on spatiotemporal pattern formation and chaos in dynamical systems, and possible implications for information and entropy.
Email: chipmansb@uchicago.edu
Draco (Yunlong) Xu
Ph.D. Student | Computational Neuroscience
B.S., Mathematics and Computer Science
Focus: 1) Models of brain functions using neural networks, dynamic systems theory, and machine learning. 2) Data science to study the dynamics and variability of neural circuits involved in perception and cognition.
Email: dracoxu@uchicago.edu
Personal Website: https://dracooxu.github.io/
Yichao Guan
Ph.D. Student | Biophysics
B.A., Physics
Focus: I am studying the dimensionality of neural activities using various tools from statistical mechanics.
Email: yichaog@uchicago.edu
Postdoctoral and Graduate Alumni
Cheng Ly, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Statistical Sciences and Operations Research | Virginia Commonwealth University
Robert Rosenbaum, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Associate Professor, Applied and Computational Mathematics | University of Notre Dame
Ashok Litwin-Kumar, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Student | Neuroscience
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Neuroscience | Columbia University
Gabriel Koch Ocker, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Student | Neuroscience
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics | Boston University
Chengchen Huang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Neuroscience | University of Pittsburgh
Wen-Hao Zhang, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Bioinformatics | UT Southwestern
Hannah Bos, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Senior Algorithms and Applications ML Engineer at SynSense
Danielle Rager, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Student | Neural Computation
Current Position: Neuromorphic Algorithms Research Scientist at Intel Labs
Jeff Dunworth
Ph.D. Student | Mathematics
Fereshteh Lagzi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Matt Getz, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Student | Neuroscience
Ph.D., Neuroscience
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow in the Gjorgjieva lab.
Gregory Handy, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics | University of Minnesota
Masters and Undergraduate Alumni
Tevin Rouse, MsC
Pamela Reisma Knapp, MsC
Tatjana Kanashiro, MsC
John Bartels, MsC
Aubrey Thompson, MsC
Michael Leone, MsC
Alex Negrón, SCGB SURF Fellow