Current and Upcoming Visitors

Dr. Srikanth Ramaswamy, is a Marie Curie Fellow, a Lister Prize Fellow and an Assistant Professor in computational neuroscience at Newcastle University. He is also a Fulbright Scholar at MIT and a Theoretical Sciences Visiting Scholar at OIST. He directs the Neural Circuits Laboratory at Newcastle University. His research focuses on the role of neuromodulators in shaping cognition in biological neural networks and building biologically-informed neural network models. He is a founding scientist of the Blue Brain Project at Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL). He earned his PhD at the EPFL in computational neuroscience, where he developed data-driven modelling frameworks for biologically detailed digital models of neural networks. As a scientist of colour, Dr. Ramaswamy is passionately committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and is a founding member of the ALBA network, where he leads efforts to advance DEI in neuroscience, including launching the ALBA diversity podcast series in late 2020, highlighting the stories of emerging neuroscientists from underrepresented backgrounds.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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