Jan Drugowitsch
Theoretical/Computational neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School | Algorithms and neural implementation of reasoning under uncertainty | Decision-making and navigation.
drugowitschlab.org
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschWe are opening a FACULTY POSITION (tenure track, permanent) in the University of Cambridge at the interface of control and biology, interpreted broadly. Theorists and wet lab quantitative biologists with backgrounds in control, EE, applied math, ... apply by Jan 28! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
- Reposted by Jan Drugowitsch1/2 Brain and Cognition Master at @UPFBarcelona Why to enroll here? Nuria Sebastian-Galles (language, Premio Nacional) Gustavo Deco (comp neuro) Chris Summerfield (cognition & AI) Salva Soto-Faraco (attention) Rubén Moreno-Bote (comp neuro & AI)
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschApply to become a CSHL-Simons Fellow in Neuroscience! Run your own lab, pursue bold ideas, join a highly collaborative community! All areas including experimental or computational neuro, including NeuroAI & systems PhD required; ≤~1 yr postdoc www.cshl.edu/about-us/car...
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- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschCome be our colleague at EPFL! Several open calls for positions 🧪🧠🤖 * Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1) * Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin... * CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin... * Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschUniversity of Colorado Boulder Psychology & Neuroscience is searching for TWO tenure track assistant professors!! jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta... #socialpsychology #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #PsychJob #psycjobs #psychology 1/n
- I am exited to visit @informatics.tuwien.ac.at as a Global Fellow from next week to mid-November 🇦🇹. If you're in Vienna and interested in meeting up to chat about science (or just say hi), please reach out - I’d love to connect with new colleagues and collaborators! #AcademicLife #Vienna
- Reposted by Jan Drugowitsch📷PhD Position in Computational Neuroscience and AI, Moreno-Bote Lab, Barcelona. 1 fully funded PhD position is available. Deadline November 2025. See post below.
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschUnderlying “Stay or Go” Choices @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @jdrugowitsch.bsky.social @malcolmgcampbell.bsky.social www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n...
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschOur paper on foraging is now published in Neuron! Read it here: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... This project was co-led by Michael Bukwich (not on Bluesky) and me, with major contributions from all co-authors. Huge thanks to the whole team!
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschHow is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧪#Neuroskyence
- Public access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschPublic access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschHappy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE! Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Heterogeneous neural tuning is observed all over the brain, but what is it for? For a potential answer, check out our new pre-print at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1..., and @zachcohen1.bsky.social's post for an overview. #neuroskyence #NeuroAI #compneurosky
- Finally up on bioRxiv! A new study with @jdrugowitsch.bsky.social where we do a deep dive into the coding benefits of receptive field heterogeneity and come up with new ways to measure receptive fields! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... [1/n]
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschWe have an open PhD position in an exciting @dfg.de - @ageinves.bsky.social project to further develop continuous psychophysics in collaboration with Joan-Lopez Moliner.
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- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschDespite some ups and downs at NIH, we do have an open position for a postbac and are considering candidates. Our work is at the intersection of neuroscience and AI, and we aim to understand how the brain's densely connected recurrent networks operate. 🧪
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschThere are few fully-funded PhD positions left for this year’s Theoretical Neuroscience/ Machine learning program at Gatsby! Apply by May 27 and start in September. Please distribute broadly
- 📢 We have an opportunity for students to join our PhD programme in Theoretical Neuroscience and Machine Learning this September. Application deadline is 27 May 2025. Information & how to apply: www.ucl.ac.uk/gatsby/study-and-work/gatsby-unit-phd-programme
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- If you are attending the #cosyne2025 Workshops, please come join our Navigation under Uncertainty workshop! An exciting topic and a great line-up of speakers - what's more to ask for? Details below, and at sites.google.com/view/cosyne2...
- Please join us at our @cosynemeeting.bsky.social 2025 Workshop on Navigation under Uncertainty, organized by Máté Lengyel (Cambridge & CEU) and myself, and taking place on March 31 in the Fairmont Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Canada. #neuroskyence 🧠
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschJob alert! Postdoc position in auditory neuroscience. Funded by the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller. Work in Paris (France) at @pasteur.fr / @cnrs.fr / Institut de l'Audition. #neuroscience #hearing #optogenetics
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschI am gobsmacked that this is the response Columbia leadership went with. "Legitimate concerns"?!?! Are you kidding me?!?! This action is illegal. It is being carried out on a transparently fake pretenses. People livelihoods are at risk! WTF are you doing?!?! president.columbia.edu/news/respond...
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschI just wrote a book about how the type of work @markhisted.org is doing is key to breaking through the bottlenecks holding back new treatments for brain and mental disorders (from Alzheimers to depression). Seeing his work in danger makes me ill, and angry. We must @standupforscience.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschWHERE WILL YOU BE ON MARCH 7TH!? Head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ or the link in our bio to find your closest event—or add one if you're hosting one! #standupforscience2025
- In times like these it is worth emphasizing that none of this work would have been possible without NIH funding, and the amazing PO's and SRO's working there.
- Excited that Adam Lowet's PhD work has been just been published in @nature.com at doi.org/10.1038/s415.... He has already posted about it on Twitter/X (see twitter.com/Adam_Lowet/s...), but let me re-post his thread here. 1/9
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschRe-posting is appreciated: We have a fully funded PhD position in CMC lab @cmc-lab.bsky.social (at @tudresden_de). You can use forms.gle/qiAv5NZ871kv... to send your application and find more information. Deadline is April 30. Find more about CMC lab: cmclab.org and email me if you have questions.
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschOur new paper on distributional reinforcement learning.
- Excited that Adam Lowet's PhD work has been just been published in @nature.com at doi.org/10.1038/s415.... He has already posted about it on Twitter/X (see twitter.com/Adam_Lowet/s...), but let me re-post his thread here. 1/9
- Excited that Adam Lowet's PhD work has been just been published in @nature.com at doi.org/10.1038/s415.... He has already posted about it on Twitter/X (see twitter.com/Adam_Lowet/s...), but let me re-post his thread here. 1/9
- In Adam's words: "Thrilled to announce that my PhD work has been officially published in @nature.com! nature.com/articles/s41... 2/9
- "I previously shared a thread explaining many of our findings: x.com/Adam_Lowet/s... TLDR: we show that the brain implements a version of "distributional reinforcement learning," a cutting-edge technique from deep RL, in its mesostriatal circuitry." 3/9
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View full threadFor easy-to-digest summaries of the work, please check out the the HMS News article at hms.harvard.edu/news/how-bra... and the Harvard MCB announcement at www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n....
- Reposted by Jan Drugowitschhello world. we have an opening for a strong theory postdoc to work in my lab on a exciting collaboration with Josh Berke and Loren Frank labs modeling and analyzing data on rat hipp-pfc-bg-da involvement in spatial maze foraging, replay, value etc. apply here: www.princeton.edu/acad-positio...
- Please join us at our @cosynemeeting.bsky.social 2025 Workshop on Navigation under Uncertainty, organized by Máté Lengyel (Cambridge & CEU) and myself, and taking place on March 31 in the Fairmont Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Canada. #neuroskyence 🧠
- Our list of speakers include Elizabeth Buffalo, @albertchen-neuro.bsky.social, Alison Comrie, Yul Kang, @jpnoel.bsky.social, @c-rothkopf.bsky.social, Cristina Savin, @suthanalab.bsky.social, and Balázs Ujfalussy
- Please check out the Navigation under Uncertainty Workshop webpage at sites.google.com/view/cosyne2... for more details and the workshop schedule.
- Reposted by Jan Drugowitsch
[This post could not be retrieved] - Reposted by Jan DrugowitschState-of-the-art stochastic optimal control for dynamical systems with multiplicative observation and control noise, improving over well-known approaches Check out our @neuripsconf.bsky.social paper openreview.net/pdf?id=mZHbk... presented also at @Behavioral ML 2024 openreview.net/pdf?id=jAOwx...
- Reposted by Jan Drugowitsch1/2 Brain and Cognition Master at @UPFBarcelona Please, spread the word Why to enroll here? Nuria Sebastian-Galles (language, Premio Nacional) Gustavo Deco (comp neuro) Chris Summerfield (cognition & AI) Salva Soto-Faraco (attention) Rubén Moreno-Bote (comp neuro & AI)
- Alex Pouget and I wrote a perspective a few years ago on Major Sources of Computational Complexity in Complex Decision-Making 🧠. We never got around to publishing it, and so now uploaded it to OSF Preprints: doi.org/10.31219/osf.... I hope some of you might find it useful.
- Reposted by Jan DrugowitschJanelia is recruiting AI scientists and theory fellows to collaborate with experimental scientists on hard biological problems - these positions have a considerable level of independence and very competitive salaries. Join our great community! Ai.hhmi.org janelia.org/theoryfellow #neuroscience #AI
- At #sfn24? Come check out my lab's work! Tomorrow (Monday), @AjabiZaki will present his work on A causal inference perspective on learning in the head direction system (poster PSTR251.09 / W33) in the afternoon poster session. 1/
- On Tuesday in the morning poster session, Brooks Musangu will present Eye movements as a window into the mind’s strategy for tracking moving targets (poster PSTR281.27 / F4), which is joint work with @johnjvastola, Valentina Vencato, @JP__NOEL, Greg DeAngelis and Dora Angelaki.2/
- In the same Tuesday morning poster session, @albertchenNeuro will present his work on The role of feedback in dynamic inference for spatial navigation under uncertainty (poster PSTR314.10 / Z10). For more details on either poster please check t.co/rJLGNzjMnC. 3/
- I am excited to for the first time join this year's #BernsteinConference, organized by @BernsteinNeuro, to talk about our recent work on spatial navigation under uncertainty. 1/
- If you are there, make sure to check out our two posters! On Tuesday, in poster session III, @albertchenNeuro will present his work on The role of feedback in dynamic inference for spatial navigation under uncertainty. 2/
- Also on Tuesday, in poster session IV, @zachacohen will present his work on Revisiting efficient representations of space in multiscale place field populations. 3/
- You can find more info about the posters at drugowitschlab.org/news/202409-bernste… or in the Bernstein conference program at bernstein-network.de/bernstein-conferenc… 4/
- Going to #Cosyne2024? Make sure to check out these great posters by my lab and with collaborators: Happening tonight: [1-162] Revisiting efficient representations of space in hierarchical place field populations, by @zachacohen & myself 1/4
- Happening tomorrow at #Cosyne2024: [2-071] Improving optimal control in systems with biologically realistic multiplicative and internal noise, by Francesco Damiani, Gregory DeAngelis, myself, Ruben Moreno-Bote & Akiyuki Anzai 2/4
- Happening on Saturday at #Cosyne2024: [3-144] An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning, by @Adam_Lowet, Melissa Meng, @SaraM306, Qiao Zheng, myself & @naoshigeuchida (see also x.com/Adam_Lowet/status/1…) 3/4
- Also happening on Saturday at #Cosyne2024: [3-166] Causal inference in a target interception task: optimal strategies and neural circuits, by @johnjvastola, Valentina Vencato, @JP__NOEL, Gregory DeAngelis, Dora Angelaki & myself. 4/4
- Check out our new preprint: An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning, biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…, by @Adam_Lowet, with Qiao Zheng, Melissa Meng, @SaraM306, myself, and @naoshigeuchida. 1/6
- In machine learning, distributional reinforcement learning, which learns whole reward distributions rather than just their means, led to huge performance gains. We asked if the brain might use similar mechanisms for reward-guided decisions. 2/6
- Previous work by @wwdabney and colleagues (doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-…) showed that VTA dopamine activity appears to provide signals for learning whole reward distributions rather than just their means. 3/6
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View full threadAlso, check out Adam's post at twitter.com/Adam_Lowet/status/1…!
- Apparently, I got listed as a member of the program committee for various conferences without being asked, and now get papers assigned to review. They all seems to relate to the MIR labs (mirlabs.org). Does anyone else get spammed by them?
- In our contribution to this issue - a fun collaboration with @JP_NOEL, @BillScientific, Haoran Ding, @johnjvastola, Greg DeAngelis, and @AngelakiLab - we explored causal inference about self- and object-motion in closed-loop navigation. Check it out at t.co/aFFQgRh2nn t.co/ouGX2vLpKD
- Check out our brief summary of our work "Bayesian inference in ring attractor networks", recently published in PNAS, at doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210622120 twitter.com/harvardbrainsci/sta…
- Finally out in PNAS: great work by @ankutschi in an exciting collaboration with @RachelIreneWils and @MelBasnak, showing that canonical ring attractor networks can perform Bayesian inference if they are slow. Check it out! twitter.com/ankutschi/status/16…
- Did you ever wonder how latent neural manifolds relate to the statistics of neural population activity? Go check out this excellent work by @johnjvastola and @zachacohen on latent probabilistic manifold discovery at this Saturday's @neur_reps workshop at #NeurIPS2022! t.co/a8CgUnnkbF
- I finally caved and created a Mastodon account: @jdrugowitsch@qoto.org. I will keep a dual identity on Twitter for the time being.
- Given the potential Twitter collapse, Mastodon seems to be the currently best alternative (however problematic), but requires choosing a specific server. So, Twitter/Mastodon folks, what's the best server for computational neuroscience?
- Computational neuroscience tenure-track opening at @harvardmed and the Kempner Institute! Come be my colleague! academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/11660
