News
Professor Adrienne Fairhall elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Congratulations to Adrienne Fairhall, Professor of Neurobiology and Biophysics, Adjunct Professor of Applied Mathematics, and Adjunct Professor of Physics, who has just been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Prof. Fairhall has made foundational contributions to the problem of the neural code — deciphering the set of patterns that the brain uses to compute — and to the questions of how these patterns arise through the nonlinear dynamics of neurons and networks. [...]
Fairhall lab and Columbia University researchers join forces on groundbreaking study tracking dopamine in birdsong learning
When we learn a new skill, we often get feedback on our performance– rewards for good behavior, debriefs from a sports coach, or corrections from a piano teacher while stumbling through our pieces. In general, though, we improve many skills without anyone telling us how we are doing: we know when we’ve made a mistake when we’re practicing a song alone. Our own “internal critic” evaluates and signals our errors, somehow guiding us [...]
UW Neural Engineer and CNC theorist Amy Orsborn Named 2025 Sloan Research Fellow
Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering Amy Orsborn has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for her groundbreaking work in brain-machine interfaces. The fellowship, which provides $75,000 over two years, recognizes exceptional early-career scientists poised to become the next generation of scientific leaders. The Sloan Research Fellowships, awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, identify rising stars across eight scientific and technical fields. Fellows are nominated by their [...]
Register for the 4th Annual “Hackacollabathon” on December 4th
UW Computational Neuroscience Center (CNC) is excited to announce the 4th annual “Hackacollabathon” hosted by the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics (AIND) and the CNC. The goal of this event is to create a space for AIND and UW scientists to connect and collaborate, centered on analyzing fresh data collected at AIND. Date: Dec 4, 2024, 12 pm - 3 pm Location: UW South Campus Center (“Crow’s Nest” - Room 354) Register here! [...]
Scientists at Allen Institute and CNC part of consortium that has mapped the complete connectome of the fly brain
The synaptic connectivity of neurons is fundamental to how they function. Extracting this information for entire brains is an extremely challenging task. Today, the largest map of synaptic connectivity between neurons has been published in a special issue at Nature. 12 papers describe and analyze the first whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly produced by the FlyWire consortium. Building on an 3D image stack from the brain, the consortium collaboratively [...]
Data Science Fellow Ariel Rokem Receives Education in Neuroimaging Award
Research Associate Professor of Psychology and eScience Institute Data Science Fellow Ariel Rokem has been awarded the Education in Neuroimaging Award by the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. The prize recognizes a researcher who has made a significant contribution to education and training in neuroimaging. Rokem's educational work includes the establishment of the Summer Institute in Neuroimaging and Data Science (https://neurohackademy.org), which he co-directs with eScience Institute Senior Data Scientist Noah Benson. He also co-authored [...]