Past Visitors

The following are the profiles of all previous visitors of the TSVP, including its predecessor, the "Visiting Mathematics Professor Program" (until 2020).

FY2023

Name Arrival Departure Field Units of Interest  
THEMATIC PROGRAM
Response Diversity and Ecosystem Stability
2024/03/01 2024/03/28 Ecology Armitage, Pigolotti, Dieckmann, Ravasi, Economo, Husnik, Kondrashov, Sallan, Bandi, N. Luscombe, De Schutter, Doya, Froese, Fukai TP
Paul Luis Roehl
(University of Cambridge)
2024/03/12 2024/07/31 Theoretical High Energy Physics Hikami, Neiman, Toriumi A
Nick Dorey
(University of Cambridge)
2024/02/29 2024/07/14 Theoretical High Energy Physics Hikami, Neiman, Toriumi VS
Masatoshi Kokubo 2024/02/26 2024/03/08 Constitutional Law, Neurolaw (Law and Neuroscience), Information Law Doya, Tani A
Izaak Neri
(King's College London)
2024/01/30 2024/04/25

Mathematics, Physics

Dieckmann, Pigolotti

VS
Bianca Dittrich 2024/01/23 2024/03/15 Physics

Höhn, Neiman, Toriumi

VS
Robert Joynt 2024/01/20 2024/02/20 Physics, Quantum Shannon, Busch, Munro, Nemoto, Okada A
Travis Scrimshaw 2024/01/15 2024/02/28 Mathematics, Combinatorial Representation Theory Liu, Speyer DV
Sylvester Eriksson-Bique 2024/01/08 2024/03/28 Mathematics, Geometry and Analysis of Metric Spaces Liu, Zhou VS
Jana Björn
(Linköping University)
2024/01/08 2024/08/15 Mathematics

Abdulla, Liu, Zhou

VS
Anders Björn
(Linköping University)
2024/01/08 2024/08/15 Mathematics

Abdulla, Liu, Zhou

VS
Keiko Aoki 2023/11/29 2024/02/27 Material Science, Mathematics, Physics, Molecular dynamics simulation Bandi, Chakraborty, Hikami, Husnik, Liu DV
Raquel Fernandez 2023/11/23 2023/12/03 Computer Science, Computational Linguistics Doya, Yamada A
Rachel Wheatley 2023/11/14 2024/01/30 Life Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology

Armitage, Bourguignon, Husnik, Pigolotti

VS
Shinichi Aizawa 2023/11/14 2024/02/22 Biology, Physics, Bacterial flagella Kusumi, Wolf DV
Charles Fosseprez 2023/10/01 2023/10/22 Cybernetics, Collective behaviors, Protist Ethology Armitage, Fukai, Husnik, Miller, Shen DV
Lucy Lai 2023/10/01 2024/01/22 Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Tripp, Doya DV
Stefan Baeuml 2023/10/01 2023/10/28 Quantum Elkouss, Munro A
Paolo Piovano 2023/08/04 2023/08/20 Mathematics Fried A
Daniel Chourrout (University of Bergen) 2023/08/03 2024/08/03 Evolution, Marine Science N. Luscombe (Host), Laudet EVS
THEMATIC PROGRAM
Exact Asymptotics: From Fluid Dynamics to Quantum Geometry
2023/08/01 2023/10/28 Mathematics, Physics Toriumi, Hikami, Chakraborty, Fried, Gioia, Rosti, Touber, Abdulla, Liu TP
Daniel Grumiller 2023/07/04 2023/08/30 Physics, Astrophysics Neiman VS
David Meyer 2023/06/20 2023/07/27 Mathematics, Physics Höhn, Neiman, Toriumi, Yamada, Twamley, Nemoto VS
Jonathan Kujawa 2023/06/06 2023/06/20 Mathematics Speyer A
Mahir Bilen Can 2023/06/02 2023/08/29 Algebraic Groups and Monoids, Real Alegbraic Geometry, Information Theory Speyer VS
Christophe Claramunt 2023/04/10 2023/07/07 Computer Science, Geographical Information Science Yamada, Armitage VS
           
Anatole Lecuyer 2023/03/14 2023/05/28 Computer Science, Virtual Reality, Brain-Computer Interfaces Doya, Froese, Kuhn VS

FY2022

Visitors in Fiscal Year 2022 (April 2022 - March 2023).

The visitors' profiles can be found further down.

Name Arrival Departure Field Units of Interest
Artur Tsobanjan 2023/03/22 2023/08/15 Physics Höhn, Busch, Neiman, Toriumi, Twamley
Anatole Lecuyer 2023/03/14 2023/05/28 Computer Science, Virtual Reality, Brain-Computer Interfaces Doya, Froese, Kuhn
Jochen Steil 2023/03/03 2023/07/31 Robotics Tani, Fukai, Doya
Malgorzata Lagisz 2023/03/02 2023/09/30 Biology Pigolotti - A
Shinichi Nakagawa 2023/03/02 2023/10/31 Biology Pigolotti, Armitage, Froese
Leenoy Meshulam 2023/02/05 2023/02/23 Physics, Neuroscience Reiter, Tanaka, Doya, Fukai, Miller, Pigolotti
Jeffrey Teo 2023/01/26 2023/07/23 Physics, Condensed Matter Shannon, Okada
Timothy O'Leary 2022/12/06 2023/02/28 Neuroscience, Systems Theory and Control Doya, De Schutter, Wickens
Guido Boffetta 2022/12/02 2023/01/28 Physics, Fluid Dynamics Rosti, Chakraborty
Mark Wildon 2022/10/04 2022/11/10 Mathematics Speyer
Kyoji Saito 2022/09/11 2023/01/15 Mathematics Hikami, Speyer
Christian Rosenmund 2022/09/02 2023/06/30 Neuroscience Goda (Host) - EVS
Leon Loveridge 2022/08/15 2022/12/15 Mathematics, Physics Höhn
Takashi Ikegami 2022/08/08 2022/12/04 Neuroscience Froese
Sebastiano Nicolussi Golo 2022/08/05 2022/10/28 Mathematics Zhou
Merav Stern 2022/07/18 2022/08/14 Neural Networks Modeling Fukunaga, Fukai, Doya
Kerstin Lenk 2022/07/18 2022/08/18 Neuroscience De Schutter, Kuhn
Dana Ballard 2022/06/22 2022/08/12 Neuroscience Tani, Froese, Fukai, Fukunaga, Uusisaari, Doya
Mog Stapleton 2022/06/10 2023/03/31 Cognitive Science Froese
Robert Osburn 2022/06/09 2022/09/01 Mathematics Speyer, Feichtner-Kozlov
Shiro Ikeda 2022/05/09 2022/07/31 Data Science Doya, Fukai, Kuhn
Leenoy Meshulam 2022/05/09 2022/07/31 Physics, Neuroscience Reiter, Tanaka, Doya, Fukai, Miller, Pigolotti
Chris Bowman 2022/04/06 2022/05/02 Mathematics Speyer
Daniel Bulmash 2022/03/21 2022/07/03 Physics Shannon, Okada
Yi-chao Chen 2022/01/03 2022/12/30 Solid Mechanics Fried (Host) - DVS

 

Jana Björn

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03g

Jana Björn is a Professor of Mathematics at Linköping University, Sweden, where she also received her PhD in 1996. She was a postdoc at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and then at Lund University. She has also spent longer research periods at Charles University in Prague, University of Cincinnati and the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Stockholm. Her research is in analysis on metric spaces, mainly in collaboration with Anders Björn. In particular, she is interested in p-harmonic functions, partial differential equations and various minimization problems. She studies various solving methods and properties of the solutions, such as their interior and boundary regularity and growth estimates. This is research in pure mathematics and its aim is to provide rigorous fundamentals for and a better understanding of some problems, which could come from natural sciences and other fields. Analysis on metric spaces makes it possible to study such questions simultaneously in many different settings, for example on very rough sets and for highly nonhomogeneous media. It also brings new insight into which properties and assumptions are really essential for the theory and which are the main obstructions. A popular-scientific description of Jana's research is at this website.

 

Jana Björn

 

 

Anders Björn

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03r

Anders Björn is a Professor of Mathematics at Linköping University, Sweden, where he also received his PhD in 1995. He was a postdoc at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has later spent longer research periods at Charles University in Prague, University of Cincinnati and the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Stockholm. His research is in analysis on metric spaces, mainly in collaboration with Jana Björn. In particular, he is interested in p-harmonic functions, partial differential equations and various minimization problems. He studies various solving methods and properties of the solutions, such as their interior and boundary regularity and growth estimates. This is research in pure mathematics and its aim is to provide rigorous fundamentals for and a better understanding of some problems, which could come from natural sciences and other fields. Analysis on metric spaces makes it possible to study such questions simultaneously in many different settings, for example on very rough sets and for highly nonhomogeneous media. It also brings new insight into which properties and assumptions are really essential for the theory and which are the main obstructions. A popular-scientific description of Anders's research is at this website.

Anders Björn

 

 

Daniel Chourrout

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03t

Daniel Chourrout has established the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology in 1997 and been its director until 2020. This institute is a Partner of EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory since 2023. His own research is focused on the evolution of chordate development, using tunicates as model systems. Before moving to Norway, Daniel Chourrout was heading the Laboratory of Fish Genetics at INRA (French Institute of Research for Agriculture). His training is in Genetics from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.

EVSP Talk: "Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates: our experience with an alternative model organism" by Daniel Chourrout

Daniel Chourrout

 

 

Nick Dorey

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03q

Nick Dorey received his PhD from Edinburgh University in 1991 and then held postdoctoral and junior faculty positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Washington and Swansea University. He has been a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge since 2007.  He is currently visiting OIST as a TSVP Visiting Scholar.

TSVP Talk: "What Can Quantum Field Theory Teach Us About Black Holes (And Vice Versa)?" by Nick Dorey

Nick Dorey

 

 

Izaak Neri

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03l

Izaak is a Senior Lecturer in Disordered Systems within the Mathematics Department at King’s College London. Izaak engages in two research domains. Firstly, he develops mathematical techniques for analysing complex systems, such as, neural networks, ecosystems, and complex fluids, with a specific focus on understanding the role of network structure and heterogeneity in their dynamics. In this context, he extends methods used for studying systems with all-to-all interactions to those within networked systems. Secondly, Izaak uses stochastic processes to explore nonequilibrium fluctuations in small systems, such as molecular motors, or decision-making processes in noisy environments.

Izaak Neri

 

 

Sylvester Eriksson-Bique

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03n

I am primarily interested in geometric problems which arise in the context of "rough" spaces: embedding problems of metric spaces, the structure of boundaries of hyperbolic groups, the geometry of fractal spaces arising from dynamics, or fractal properties of sub-Riemannian geometries. Since many of these concepts are related to "quasisymmetric mappings", I would describe these questions as being part of the "quasiworld". Especially embedding questions are not only of theoretical interest. They arise naturally in data analysis and the analysis of certain relaxation methods to solve optimization problems. Further, these questions have profound connections to the analysis on such rough spaces and concepts that come from first order analysis of metric spaces. Indeed, these notions can obstruct embeddings, prevent certain geometries from existing, or reveal subtle geometric facts about dynamical systems. Their study also leads to natural invariants that can be used to classify and distinguish spaces from each other. Especially recently, I have come to see that the study of Analysis on Metric spaces can lead to answering some difficult open problems related to geometric group theory. However, an obstacle to making progress in this direction is that many fundamental notions in Analysis on metric spaces remain poorly understood. It is there, that I strive to develop new techniques, concepts and results, that help us answer these open problems. Personal Website

Sylvester Eriksson-Bique

 

 

Shinichi Aizawa

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03q

Shinichi Aizawa is Professor Emeritus at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima currently visiting OIST through the Visiting Program (TSVP). He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in the structure and function of bacterial flagella. His contributions to solving flagellar polymorphism are very highly regarded, and his book “The Flagellar World” has become a standard textbook in the field. After studying at Tohoku and Nagoya Universities in Japan, he spent several years as a Postdoc at Yale University. His long career in academia included positions at Research & Development Corporation of Japan (now JST) in Tsukuba, Teikyo University, University of Hawaii, Flinders University in Australia, and Martin-Luther University Halle in Germany.

[Seminar] "Two Mysteries of the Bacterial Flagellum" by Shinichi Aizawa, in L5D23

Shinichi Aizawa

 

 

 

Bianca Dittrich

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03o

Bianca Dittrich is a senior research faculty at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.  Her research focusses on quantum gravity, here in particular on non-perturbative approaches.  Her research intersects with a number of other topics in theoretical and mathematical physics, e.g. topological quantum field theories, tensor networks, real time path integrals.
Bianca Dittrich completed her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in 2005 and  postdocs at Perimeter Institute  (2005-08) and  Utrecht University (2008/09). She then became a Max Planck research group leader at the MPI for Gravitational Physics and joined Perimeter Institute as faculty researcher in 2012. Personal Website

Bianca Dittrich

 

 

Robert Joynt

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03f

Robert Joynt received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1982 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge and the Institute for Theoretical Physics at ETH-Zurich. He was Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1986 to 2023 and is now Emeritus Professor. He served as Department Chair and was the Founding Director of the MSc in Physics-Quantum Computing. He is Senior Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences in Beijing. His research has ranged from the quantum Hall effect to high-Tc superconductivity to neutron stars to quantum computing.

Robert Joynt

 

 

Lucy Lai

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03m

Lucy Lai is a final-year neuroscience Ph.D. student at Harvard, advised by Sam Gershman. Her research applies information theory and reinforcement learning towards understanding how humans learn and make decisions under cognitive resource constraints. In particular, she has developed a resource-rational model of action selection to characterize decision-making in healthy and clinical populations. A restless researcher at heart, she has spent time at Baylor College of Medicine, MIT, Janelia Research Campus, and UCL. At OIST, she will be collaborating with the Tripp and Doya Units to develop computational models of reward learning in children with ADHD. In addition to research, Lucy is also passionate about education and mentoring: she has developed and taught many courses, including Math Tools for Neuroscience and How Music Plays the Brain, and served as a Resident Tutor at Quincy House, where she lived with and advised Harvard undergraduate students. Personal Website

Lucy Lai

 

 

Travis Scrimshaw

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03e

Travis Scrimshaw is an assistant professor at Hokkaido University whose research focuses on combinatorial aspects of representation theory, integrable systems, and stochastic processes. He is an active developer of the open-source mathematical software SageMath. He received his PhD in 2015 at the University of California, Davis under the supervision of Anne Schilling. Afterwards, he did postdocs at the University of Minnesota, the University of Queensland, and Osaka Metropolitan University (JSPS postdoc). Personal Website

Travis Scrimshaw

 

 

Rachel Wheatley

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03l

Rachel is an evolutionary microbiologist interested in antimicrobial resistance evolution, interactions in the microbiome, pathogen evolution during infections, and bacterial defence systems such as CRISPR-Cas. Rachel is a Fellow in Biology at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College), and taking up a tenure-track position at Queen's University Belfast in 2024. She is particularly interested in the interface between antibiotic resistance evolution and success in the microbiome. Prior to her current position, she spent time at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study) and as a postdoc in the lab of Professor Craig MacLean. Outside of science, she enjoys judo, boxing, and running! Personal Website

TSVP Talk "Ecology and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance in Bacterial Pathogens" by Rachel Wheatley

Rachel Wheatley

 

 

Raquel Fernández

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03n

Raquel Fernández is Professor of Computational Linguistics and Dialogue Systems at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam. She received her PhD from King's College London and before moving to Amsterdam held research positions at Stanford University and the University of Potsdam. She is currently the recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant. Raquel’s interests revolve around language use in interaction, conversational AI, language variability and change, and visually grounded language. Her research lab carries out work on these topics at the interface of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Personal Website

TSVP Talk "Language Use in Humans and Machines" by Raquel Fernandez

Raquel Fernandez

 

 

Keiko Aoki

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03p

Keiko Aoki is an independent researcher based in Tokyo. Her main research field is condensed matter physics, and her main tool for research is molecular/particle dynamics simulation.
Since anisotropically fluctuating systems, such as liquid crystals and soft matter could not be properly treated by conventional molecular dynamics (MD) methods, we have developed a set of simulation methods which are called stress control methods. Stress control MD methods guarantee the system to be under hydrostatic pressure (or other condition) even in non-equilibrium processes. Time evolution under constant surface tension can be investigated by one of the stress control methods as well. This is in contrast to conventional MD methods, where only ensemble average can be controlled. The method is effective to investigate self-organization of soft matter, as well as glassy metastable states. ORCID ID

[Tutorial] Stress control molecular dynamics simulation methods designed for simulating soft matter by Keiko Aoki

Keiko Aoki

 

 

Charles Fosseprez

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03r

Deep into the micro-world, I've been captivated by the complexity of microbial communities. My scientific journey is rooted in the exploration of collective evolution within living systems. Biochemistry, Microbiology and Cybernetics are my focal points, and I'm eager to share the marvels of this field with a broader audience. My approach is decidedly interdisciplinary, with a global footprint spanning diverse subjects. From unraveling the geometric symphony of embryo organization to delving into the fabrication of nanorobots for information processing, my pursuits have been wide-ranging. I've navigated through startups and ventured into the realm of art, guided by a persistent curiosity about constraints and compartments in biological systems. Philosophical contemplation is woven into my scientific exploration, yet I maintain a practical mindset as I am an Engineer with an eye on real-world applications.

[Seminar] "Microbe-Machine cybernetic coupling: A feedback loop for ethology and proto intelligences study " by Charles Fosseprez

Charles Fosseprez

 

 

Stefan Baeuml

Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03n

Stefan Baeuml obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, under the supervision of Andreas Winter. His Ph.D. thesis focused on quantum repeaters and bound entanglement. He then moved to the group of Bill Munro at NTT Basic Research Labs in Japan as a postdoc, focusing on upper bounds on key rates achievable in general quantum network scenarios. After continuing his work on quantum networks in the group of Stephanie Wehner and David Elkouss at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, he moved to the group of Antonio Acin at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain. His current research is focused on security proofs for discrete modulated continuous variable quantum key distribution.

[Seminar] Security of Discrete-Modulated Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

Stefan Baeuml

 

 

Daniel Grumiller

Visit from 2023/07/04 - 2023/08/30

Daniel Grumiller is professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at TU Wien in Vienna, Austria. He is head of the black holes research group since 2009, after returning to his alma mater from postdoc positions with Roman Jackiw at MIT and Dmitri Vassilevich at Leipzig University. His research focus is on black holes and the holographic principle. For details of his research, see his home page.

TSVP Talk: "Black Holes and the Holographic Principle" by Daniel Grumiller on July 20th at 3pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03r

Daniel Grumiller

 

 

Mahir Bilen Can

Visit from 2023/06/02 - 2023/09/29

Mahir Bilen Can is a Professor of Mathematics at Tulane University in New Orleans. His research interests include algebraic (semi)group theory, real algebraic geometry, representation theory as well as information theory. He has a particular interest in the application of algebraic geometry to the theory of error-correcting codes. In his recent work, he has developed a theory of quantum error-correcting codes that can handle biased information channels. Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "Quantum Error Correction via Poset Metrics" by Mahir Bilen Can on June 29th at 3pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03q

Mahir Bilen Can

 

 

Paolo Piovano

Visit from 2023/08/04 - 2023/08/20

Paolo Piovano is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan whose research is devoted to the mathematical modeling of phenomena with applications to materials science and more recently, bioengineering. The focus is on the characterization of the optimal shapes and instabilities of crystalline and biological interfaces by means of variational methods in the framework of continuum and molecular mechanics. He received his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and after a Post Doc at the Italian National Research Council, he was University Assistant and then Project Group Leader at the University of Vienna, where he is currently Senior Researcher. He is also Secretary and Treasurer of the “International Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics” (ISIMM). Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "Analytical Validation of Variational Models for Epitaxially Strained Thin Films: A Review" on August 10 (Thursday), 2023 at 3pm in L4E48.
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03p

Paolo Piovano

 

David Meyer

Visit from 2023/06/20 - 2023/07/27

David Meyer is Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, having arrived there as a postdoc with Brosl Hasslacher in the Physics Department, after postdoctoral positions with Gerard ‘t Hooft at Duke University and in the Relativity Group at Syracuse University. His research interests include quantum gravity (specifically the causal set program), quantum information and computation (quantum lattice gas automata, algorithms, quantum games, topological error correcting codes, measures of entanglement), knot theory, discrete models for fluid dynamics, and data analysis problems from the social sciences (voting, networks, time series, spatial data, rankings). He completed his PhD in Mathematics at MIT, supervised by Rafael Sorkin and Daniel Freedman. Prior to that he spent a year at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar after completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Johns Hopkins University. Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "Quantum Data Science?" by David Meyer on July 6th at 3pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03p

David Meyer

 

 

Christophe Claramunt

Visit from 2023/04/10 - 2023/07/07

Christophe Claramunt is a professor of computer science at the Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology and deputy director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School in Marine Science and Engineering (ISBlue) in Northwest France. His interests are in theoretical and multidisciplinary aspects of geographical information science, and their application to urban, environmental, and maritime contexts. He is currently working on the development of spatio-temporal conceptual models and their logical and computational implementations. Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "People, Environments, Sensors: Cyber Opportunities for Exploring Human Mobilities"on May 18 (Thursday), 2023 at 3pm in L4E48.
Lecture Course: Big Geographical Data: a digital revolution for transportation studies
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03k

Christophe Claramunt

 

 

Anatole Lécuyer

Visit from 2023/03/14 - 2023/05/28

Anatole Lécuyer is Research Director and Head of Hybrid Team at Inria, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, in Rennes, France. He has been leading a research activity on "Virtual Reality" for the past 25 years. He initiated and still leads the OpenViBE open-source software for brain-computer interfaces. His research interests are in virtual/augmented reality, haptic interaction, 3D user interfaces, and brain-computer interfaces. Anatole Lécuyer obtained the IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award in Virtual/Augmented Reality in 2019, and was inducted in the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy in 2022.

TSVP Talk: As part of the Virtual Reality Seminar on April 21 (Friday), 2023 at 5:30pm in B250.
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03q

Anatole Lecuyer

©Innovaxiom

FY2022: First year of the TSVP

 

Artur Tsobanjan

Visit from 2023/03/23 - 2023/08/15

Artur Tsobanjan is a theoretical physicist who explores foundational issues in quantum theory raised by attempts to quantize gravity. He is particularly interested in finding ways to consistently incorporate the dynamical nature of time in general relativity within a quantum mechanical framework. Artur Tsobanjan received his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 2011. He is currently an associate professor at King’s College, Pennsylvania, USA. Google Scholar

TSVP Talk: "From Gravity to Quantum Clocks (And Rulers!)" on April 27 (Thursday), 2023 at 3pm in L4E48.
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03o

Artur Tsobanjan

 

Malgorzata Lagisz

Visit from 2023/03/02 - 2023/10/31

Malgorzata Lagisz is a biologist with research experience and skills in different fields of science. She often ventures outside biological topics and data, such as biomedical, environmental, conservation, or even social sciences. In her research, she uses research synthesis methods, such as systematic reviews/maps and meta-analyses.

Career Talk: "Systematic Reviews for Beginners" by Malgorzata Lagisz on September 26, 2023

Malgorzata Lagisz

 

Shinichi Nakagawa

Visit from 2023/03/02 - 2023/10/31

Shinichi is originally from Japan but has studied and worked in New Zealand, UK, Germany and Australia. He is currently a Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and Synthesis at the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Sydney). His work revolves around understanding individual variation and its maintenance of it. Yet, his work is interdisciplinary with publications in (bio)medicine, psychology, ecology, evolutionary biology, education, environmental sciences, statistics and neurosciences. For more info, please visit his webpage and check this recent article in Current Biology.

TSVP Talk: "Meta Research & Meta-Analysis in Ecology & Evolution" on March 16 (Thursday), 2023 at 4pm in L4E48.
Career Talk: "How to write a lot and well" on September 27, 2023
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03n

Shinichi Nakagawa

 

Jochen Steil

Visit from 2023/03/03 - 2023/07/31

Jochen Steil is a Professor of Robotics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. He has a background in neural networks and AI with applications in robot learning and coordinated large scale European projects in robotics and robot learning including H2020 CogIMon (Cognitive Compliant Motion in Interaction). His research interests reach from recurrent neural networks over robot learning and human-machine interaction to applications for flexible production and the future of work in the digital society. Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "Robot Learning: Where Science Meets Fiction" on April 13 (Thursday), 2023 at 3pm in B250.
Career Talk
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03m

Jochen Steil

 

Jeffrey Teo

Visit from 2023/01/26 - 2023/07/23

Jeffrey Teo is a theoretical physicist specializing in topological phases of electronic condensed matter. This includes topological (crystalline) insulators and superconductors, integer and fractional quantum Hall states, and spin liquids. In particular, he focuses on the emergence of exotic quasiparticles and topological defects that exhibit fractional behaviors, such as electric charge and statistics. Jeffrey Teo completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Simons postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is now an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia. Personal Website

TSVP Talk: "Topological Phases and Universal Fractional Quasiparticles" on February 19 (Friday), 2023 at 4pm in L4E48.
Office at OIST: Lab 5 EF03l

Jeffrey Teo

 

Mog Stapleton

Visit from 2022/06/10 - 2023/03/31

Mog Stapleton is a researcher at East China Normal University. Her background is in cognitive science and philosophy (with master's degrees in both). She received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2012. Her research focuses on embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended (so-called "4E") approaches and on the importance of affect for cognitive science. She is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Cognitive Systems Research. Google Scholar

TSVP Talk: "A Body-First Approach to Cognitive Science" on November 24, 2022 at 4pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: L4F22d

Mog Stapleton

 

Timothy O'Leary

Visit from 2022/12/06 - 2023/03/12

Timothy O’Leary is Professor of Information Engineering and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. His research uses concepts and methods from systems theory and control engineering to understand the brain at the cellular and network level. He trained in pure mathematics and obtained his PhD in biophysics and physiology at the University of Edinburgh. He then worked with Eve Marder as Swartz Theoretical Neuroscience Fellow in Brandeis University before starting his group in Cambridge in 2016. Google Scholar

TSVP Talk: "Feedback Control and Variability in the Nervous System" on January 12, 2023 at 4pm in L4E48
Mini Course: Control and Computation in Living Systems | OIST Groups
Office at OIST: L4E25j

Timothy O'Leary

 

Guido Boffetta

Visit from 2022/12/02 - 2023/01/28

Guido Boffetta is professor of theoretical physics of matter at the University of Torino (Italy). He works in fluid dynamics, in particular turbulence, turbulent convection and mixing. He is fellow of the European Mechanics Society and associate editor of Physical Review Fluids (APS). Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Time Irreversibility in Turbulence" on December 15, 2022 at 4pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: L4F22d

Guido Boffetta

 

Kyoji Saito

Visit from 2022/09/11 - 2023/01/15

Kyoji Saito is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, and a Professor Emeritus at the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences of Kyoto University. His research area covers complex algebraic geometry, representation theory and mathematical physics. In particular, the theory of primitive forms, which he has developed, plays the role of mirror symmetry between complex geometry and mathematical physics. Inspired by these facts, he is now developing a new type infinite dimensional Lie theory, including elliptic Lie algebras and their representations. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Platon's Symmetry" on October 6, 2022 at 4pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: L4E13

Kyoji Saito

 

Leon Loveridge

Visit from 2022/08/15 - 2022/12/15

Leon Loveridge is an associate professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway. His research interests are in the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, where he aims to understand the physical content of the theory through the lens of mathematics. Recent work is largely focused on quantum reference frames and general probabilistic theories. He has side interests in pure mathematics (mostly functional analysis and operator theory), and the history and philosophy of science, particularly quantum theory. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: What Is Quantum Mechanics About? on September 15, 2022 at 4pm in L4E48
Office at OIST: L4E25j

Leon Loveridge

 

Takashi Ikegami

Visit from 2022/08/08 - 2022/12/19

Takashi Ikegami is a Professor at the Department of General Systems, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo. He works in the area of artificial life research. His simulation and experimental research interests include open-ended evolution in artificial life models, experiments with self-moving droplets, large-scale Boids models, and new theories of collective intelligence. He also conducts experiments on consciousness using an android (ALTER-3). At the same time, he has presented performance art (Kugutsu Kagura2020) with ALTER-3 and VR (SnowCrash at WhiteHouse 2021, Reverse Destiny Bridge at AICHI2022). Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Collective Intelligence in Living/Nonliving Systems" on September 29, 2022 at 4pm in L4E48

Takashi Ikegami

 

Mark Wildon

Visit from 2022/10/04 - 2022/11/10

Mark Wildon is a professor of mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London, visiting the University of Bristol in 2021–22. His interests are in algebraic combinatorics and representation theory, especially the representation theory of the symmetric groups and related algebras. Personal Homapage

TSVP Talk: "Primes, Partitions and Power Series" on October 20, 2022 at 4pm
Office at OIST: L4F22d

Mark Wildon

 

Sebastiano Nicolussi Golo

Visit from 2022/08/05 - 2022/10/31

Sebastiano Nicolussi Golo is a postdoc in mathematics at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland (EU). He works on the interface between metric analysis and Lie group theory. He has worked in sub-Riemannian geometry and later he expanded his interests to geometric measure theory on Lie groups equipped with non-Riemannian distances. He completed his Ph.D. from the University of Jyväskylä in 2017. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Sub-Riemannian Geometry Is Everywhere!" on September 9, 2022 at 10:40am
Office at OIST: L4E25j

Sebastiano Nicolussi Golo

 

Robert Osburn

Visit from 2022/06/09 - 2022/09/01

Robert Osburn is an associate professor at University College Dublin. He completed his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 2001 in the fields of algebraic K-theory and number theory. His recent work has focused on special functions, modular forms, combinatorics and quantum knot invariants. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Knots and Modularity" on July 7, 2022 at 4pm

Robert Osburn

 

Merav Stern

Visit from 2022/07/18 - 2022/08/14

Merav Stern is a theoretical neuroscientist. Her research unveils the relationships between neural activity and connectivity, in both biological and artificial neural networks by improving the tools for studying non-linear dynamical system. She completed her PhD with honors at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation at Hebrew University while collaborating with Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. She won the Zuckerman leadership scholarship and worked at the Swartz Theory Center at the University of Washington. She is currently a postdoc at the Hebrew University, collaborating with the University of Oregon. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Modeling Networks Reveals How Neural Connectivity Transforms Space Into Time" on August 9, 2022 at 10am

Merav Stern

 

Kerstin Lenk

Visit from 2022/07/18 - 2022/08/18

Kerstin Lenk is an assistant professor of Computational Neuroscience at the Graz University of Technology in Austria. She has received a PhD in Computer Science from the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany. Her group focuses on the development of computational single-cell astrocyte and neuron-astrocyte network models in healthy conditions and pathologies like epilepsy and schizophrenia. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Modeling Neuron-Astrocyte Interactions in the Brain" on August 4, 2022 at 4pm
Career Talk: Academic Careers in Europe

Kerstin Lenk

 

Dana Ballard

Visit from 2022/06/23 - 2022/08/19

Dana Ballard is a professor of Computer Science. His focus is on reverse engineering the brain where models of the brain are motivated by the technical problems the Brain’s circuits solve. These modules combine data from Neuroscience and Psychology as well Computer Science. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "A Generative Model of Communication in the Brain" on July 21, 2022 at 4pm

Dana Ballard

 

Shiro Ikeda

Visit from 2022/05/09 - 2022/07/31

Shiro Ikeda is a professor at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. He has been working in the field of applied mathematics, which includes, but is not limited to, signal processing, information theory, information geometry, statistics, and astrostatistics. Personal Homepage

TSVP Talk: "Data Science for the EHT Blackhole Shadow Imaging" on June 2, 2022 at 4pm (click the title to view the recording)

Shiro Ikeda

 

Leenoy Meshulam

Visit from 2022/05/09 - 2022/07/31 and
2023/02/05 - 2023/02/23

Leenoy Meshulam is a Swartz Theory Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Washington, Seattle. She works at the interface of physics and neuroscience, mainly drawing on theoretical frameworks from statistical physics and dynamical systems to uncover principles of brain function.  She is particularly interested in how function emerges from the coordinated activity of large neuronal populations. Dr. Meshulam received her PhD from Princeton University in 2018. Prior to that she completed her undergraduate and masters at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Here at OIST she is looking forward to fruitful interactions and collaborations. 

TSVP Talk: "Can We Hope for Simplicity When Describing the Brain?" on June 23, 2022 at 4pm
Office at OIST: L4F22d

Leenoy Meshulam

 

Chris Bowman

Visit from 2022/04/06 - 2022/05/02

Chris Bowman is a Reader at the University of York. His interests are in the combinatorics and representation theories of diagrammatic algebras (for example symmetric groups, KLR algebras, and diagrammatic Soergel bimodules). Before his current position, he was a reader at the University of Kent,  held a research fellowship from Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 at City University of London, and had a postdoc with Eric Vasserot at Paris 7.  His PhD was at Corpus Christi College Cambridge, 2008-2012. Personal website

TSVP Talk: "Diagrammatic Algebra" on April 19, 2022 at 4pm

Chris Bowman

 

Daniel Bulmash

Visit from 2022/03/21 - 2022/07/03

Dr. Danny Bulmash is a postdoctoral researcher in theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his Ph.D. in 2017 from Stanford University. His research interests are in proposing, classifying, and probing novel phases of matter, with particular expertise in topological phases. Google Scholar

TSVP Talk: "From Coffee Cups to Conductivity: Topological Phases of Matter and Beyond" on June 16, 2022 at 4pm

Daniel Bulmash

 

FY2020: Visiting Mathematics Professor Program

The OIST Visiting Mathematics Professor Program was the predecessor of the TSVP. It brought promising mathematicians to OIST for periods of up to 6 months, to organize symposia and contribute to mathematics research at OIST as well as to contribute to mathematics education in Okinawa.

Paolo Piovano

Visit in 2020

Paolo Piovano is a group leader/Privatdozent at the University of Vienna. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, in August 2012 under the supervision of Irene Fonseca and Giovanni Leoni. After a postdoctoral position of one year at the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology in Pavia under the mentorship of Ulisse Stefanelli, he has been employed at the University of Vienna, Austria as Universitätsassistent. Since September 2017 he is group leader at the University of Vienna of the research group “Variational Methods and Applications” (www.univie.ac.at/variationalmethods/). Dr. Piovano obtained the Austrian habilitation in Mathematics (venia docendi) at the University of Vienna in November 2019 and the Italian national habilitation in June 2020. Full Profile

Paolo Piovano

 

James McCoy

Visit in 2020

James McCoy is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle. He completed his PhD in pure mathematics in 2002 under the supervision of Klaus Ecker at Monash University. The title of his thesis was "The surface area preserving mean curvature flow". After completing post-doctoral positions at the Australian National University, in 2005 he took up an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship as part of a joint ARC grant with Ben Andrews.  In July that year he moved to the University of Wollongong, combining a lecturing position with the ARC research grant. In January 2018 he moved to the University of Newcastle where he is now Head of Mathematics Discipline. Full Profile

James McCoy

 

Andrew Lobb

Visit in 2020

Andrew Lobb is an Associate Professor at Durham University. He was an undergraduate at Oxford University and then took up a Kennedy Scholarship at Harvard University for his PhD studies.  During these studies, he became interested in low-dimensional topology and wrote his thesis on applications of quantum knot invariants to 4-dimensional problems. Dr. Lobb moved back to the UK for a postdoctoral position at Imperial College London, then returned to the USA for second postdoc at Stony Brook which included six months leave to take part in a program at MSRI.  He arrived at Durham University in 2011 as an Assistant Professor, being promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. Full Profile

Andrew Lobb