The Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience offers studies leading to the master of arts (M.A.) and doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in dynamical neuroscience. This program recognizes the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience and the necessity for cross-disciplinary, graduate-level training through a program which brings together faculty located in seven departments on the UCSB campus. These include the departments of Computer Science: Electrical and Computer Engineering; Geography; Mechanical Engineering; Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology; Psychological & Brain Sciences; and Physics. All participating faculty maintain strong research programs that accommodate students from both the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience and their own individual departmental graduate programs.
Dynamical Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field focused on the study of how the nervous system generates perception, behavior and cognition. It is a computational approach that goes beyond traditional structure/function correlations. The Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience emphasizes the integration of mathematical and computational methods, including approaches from computational cognitive neuroscience, network and complexity analyses, signal processing and machine learning. Therefore, research areas in the program span subfields in the biological and physical sciences, psychology and engineering. Students specialize in one of two areas—complex neural networks or computational vision—but they also receive more extensive training in dynamical neuroscience than can be provided within the framework of traditional departmental programs.
Faculty
Computer Science
Michael Beyeler, PhD University of California Irvine, Assistant Professor (Vision science, human computer interface, sensation & perception, computational neuroscience, neural engineering) Joint Appointment: CS, PSY
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Upamanyu Madhow, PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana, Professor (wireless communication, signal processing, networking)
B S. Manjunath, PhD, University of Southern California, Professor (image processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, neural networks, learning algorithms, content based search in multimedia databases)
Spencer Smith, PhD, UC Los Angeles, Associate Professor (neuroengineering, neuroscience, optics, imaging, visual processing, neuronal circuitry)
Mechanical Engineering
Jeffrey M. Moehlis, PhD, UC Berkeley, Professor (nonlinear dynamics, fluid mechanics, biological dynamics, applied mathematics)
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Sung Soo Kim, PhD, John Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Assistant Professor (Neuroscience, System and Quantitative Biology)
Kenneth S. Kosik, MD, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Professor (neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's disease, stem cells, synaptic plasticity, microRNAs, evolution of the nervous system)
Matthieu R. Louis, PhD, University of Cambridge, Assistant Professor (systems biology, systems neuroscience, behavioral neurogenetics)
Craig Montell, PhD UC Los Angeles, Professor (biomedical sciences, neuroscience)
Julie H. Simpson, PhD, UC Berkeley, Assistant Professor (neuroscience and genetics)
William Smith, PhD, UC Santa Cruz, Professor (developmental biology of marine invertebrate chordates)
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Psychological & Brain Sciences
Michael J. Goard, PhD, UC Berkeley, Assistant Professor (neuroscience) Joint Appointment: MCDB, PSY
Ikuko Smith, DVM, Hokkaido, PhD UC Los Angeles, Assistant Professor (cellular and metwork mechanism; dendritic information processing; electrophysiology and two photon-imaging) Joint Appointment MCDB, PSY
Psychological & Brain Sciences
F. Gregory Ashby, PhD, Purdue University, Professor (cognitive neuroscience, categorization, attention, decision processes in perception and cognition, mathematical psychology)
Miguel P. Eckstein, PhD, UC Los Angeles, Professor (computational models of human vision, visual search, attention, perceptual learning, perception of medical images)
Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Professor (cognitive neuroscience, neuroscience and the law, free will, dynamical systems, mind-brain interaction)
Barry Giesbrecht, Ph.D., University of Alberta, Canada, Associate Professor (cognitive neuroscience, attention, sports performance)
Scott T. Grafton, M.D., University of Southern California, Professor (cognitive neuroscience, goal-directed behavior, motor simulation, functional magnetic resonance imaging)
Emily Jacobs, PhD, University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor (cognitive neuroscience, women's health, endocrinology, reproductive aging)
Skirmantas Janusonis, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Associate Professor (developmental and systems neuroscience)
Ronald Keiflin, PhD University of Bordeaux, Assistant Professor (behavioral neuroscience, associative learning, decision making)
Michael B. Miller, Ph.D., Dartmouth College, Associate Professor (cognitive neuroscience, human memory and decision-making, functional magnetic resonance imaging)
Tommy Sprague, PhD, UC San Diego, Assistant Professor (computational neuroimaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, electro-encephalography, visual attention, visual memory)
Physics
Jean M. Carlson, Ph.D., Cornell University, Professor (robustness, tradeoffs, and feedback in complex, highly connected systems, prediction of large-scale behavior)
Statistics and Applied Probability
Wendy Meiring, PhD, University of Washington, Associate Professor (applied statistics, statistics of space-time processes, environmental statistics)