|
Rowland Junior Fellows
This is a list of current Junior Fellows with links to their laboratory webpages.
-
David Cox - (neuroscience)
We recognize visual objects with such ease that it is easy to overlook what an impressive computational
feat this represents. Any given object in the world can cast an effectively infinite number of different
images onto the retina, depending on its position relative to the viewer, the configuration of light
sources, and the presence of other objects in the visual field. In spite of this extreme variation,
biological visual systems are able to effortlessly recognize at least hundreds of thousands of
distinct object classes—a feat that no current artificial system can come close to achieving.
Our laboratory seeks to understand the neuronal mechanisms that enable this ability by reverse
engineering simple biological visual systems. It is our hope that this work leads to a greater
understanding of how our own brain works and to the construction of improved artificial visual systems.
-
Ben de Bivort - (neurobiology)
The animal kingdom has immense morphological diversity, but even greater behavioral diversity. We study how evolution generates behavioral diversity, particularly how natural genetic variation modifies neural circuits and circuit properties in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and related species. We are also studying how fungal insect parasites target healthy neural circuits to modify walking behavior in living hosts. These questions are addressed using versatile Drosophila genetic tools, high resolution single animal behavioral assays, and fluorescent
genetically-encoded indicators of neural circuit activity.
-
Alessandra Ferzoco - (chemistry)
Reactions useful for the conversion of light energy into chemical energy are often complex because they require multiple charge transfer steps.
Coupling electron and proton transfer facilitates these reactions by avoiding the high-energy intermediates found if electrons and protons
are transferred individually and by enabling multiple charge transfer steps at one location. Our lab seeks to understand the types
of chemical structures and environments that promote concerted electron/proton transfer by studying how ion structure changes
in going from the ground state to electronically excited states. To accomplish these studies our lab works at the intersection
between mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy. We develop custom instrumentation to generate and trap ions and ion-molecule complexes,
control their temperature, and then interrogate them by various types of spectroscopy.
-
SJ Claire Hur - (biomedical engineering)
Single-cell deformability has been recently identified as a critical biomarker for various diseases and it varies considerably based on phenotypes. Current cell deformability measurement techniques, however, are inherently low throughput for statistical analysis of large heterogeneous biological samples. We focus on developing high-throughput microfluidic techniques for measuring intrinsic properties of single cells, including intracellular viscosity, membrane tension/elasticity and Young's modulus. These measurements will allow us to identify potential genetic-alterations and phenotype-changes, responsible for modification in such properties of cells. Furthermore, systematic determination of single-cell mechanical properties in a rapid and standardized manner will expedite an adoption of aforementioned properties as new types of biomarkers for phenotype characterizations. These newly revealed biomarkers should provide efficient tools for determining the cell state and phenotype, which are potentially useful for cancer diagnostics and prognostics, cell-based therapeutics as well as developmental biology.
-
Chris Richards - (biomechanics)
My lab explores how muscles move limbs to power swimming. Muscle is a spectacularly efficient and powerful motor which drives behaviors
that impress biologists and engineers alike. How do aquatic animals accelerate rapidly or maneuver precisely at high swimming speeds?
Intuition tells us that high performance swimming, such as prey capture or escaping, demands high muscle power. However, we cannot
often predict the muscle power required for a given swimming task. Moreover, we do not fully understand how nerves communicate with
muscles to achieve the exquisite control of swimming performance seen in nature. My lab seeks to understand the physiological basis
for how nature's swimming machines (e.g. frogs, fish, aquatic insects) solve the difficult engineering problem of moving rapidly
through water.
-
Yuki Sato - (physics)
One of the overarching themes of our research is the investigations and applications of quantum coherent matter. In superconductors, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates, a large fraction of constituent particles can occupy the same quantum ground state and behave in many ways as a single entity. We are interested in not only studying fascinating properties of such state of matter but also applying them as a set of tools to elucidate some subtleties of the quantum world. With disregard for presumed boundaries between applied physics, material science, and engineering, we also develop metamaterials and devices whose novel properties do not naturally exist in nature. Our current interests include superfluid and superconducting Josephson phenomena, nano/micro/meta-materials & devices, inertial sensing technologies, matter wave interferometry, and force/displacement sensing limits.
- Ethan Schonbrun -
(physics)
In biotechnology and medical diagnostics there is a large demand for the analysis of enormous sets of samples.
Optical detection systems such as micro-array scanners, flow cytometers, and fluorescence microscopes are
the standard work horse instrumentation for these applications. While these systems have proven successful,
they are frequently based on the frame of a standard optical microscope which has tradeoffs in field of view,
resolution, and light collection. By designing optical systems using a priori knowledge of the sample, many
of these tradeoffs can be circumvented. In the MOIRE lab, we will investigate optical detection systems based
on microfabricated components, such as lens arrays, computer generated holograms, and artificial dielectrics.
By integrating these components with microfluidics and high speed cameras, we hope to realize a new generation
of optical diagnostic devices.
-
Laurence Wilson - (physics)
We are interested in understanding bacterial motility, particularly relating to the formation and propagation of biofilms.
Most studies to date have focused either on macroscopic phenomena (for example, the size of colonies growing
on agar plates) or on microscopic, single cell measurements. Our work focuses on the behavior of E. coli,
using newly developed image processing algorithms to assess motility in much larger groups of individuals
(typically around 10,000 at a time) than previously possible. We use high-throughput Fourier-space techniques,
allowing the study of motility over a range of length scales from 1 micrometer to 1 millimeter, and timescales
from one millisecond to several hours.
|
