Paul Tiesinga

Building Brains in Silico

From molecule to man; Professor of Neuroinformatics Paul Tiesinga of the Radboud University in Nijmegen aims to integrate all the aspects of brain structure and dynamics. His primary objective is to understand how our perception and behavior derives from the electrical activity of neurons in the brain and how the connectivity structure necessary for these tasks is formed in the brain. To this purpose, he uses theoretical and computational techniques supported by experimental data. 

In addition, Tiesinga develops techniques and tools to better analyze experimental measurements and tools for making the results thereof easier to access and re-use by other researchers. He is actively involved in new therapeutic applications of rapidly developing neurotechnologies designed not only to measure brain activity and structure but also to manipulate it through electrical stimulation and molecular approaches.

Tiesinga obtained his PhD from Utrecht University in the area of theoretical physics. Afterwards he refocused his research effort on computational neuroscience and was a researcher in the US at Northeastern University in Boston, the Salk Institute in San Diego and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.