Pavan Ramdya

Pavan Ramdya (born 1979) is an American neuroscientist and bioengineer. His research centers on understanding the neuromechanical control of behavior and its application to robotics and artificial intelligence in neurosciences. He holds the Firmenich Next Generation Chair in neuroscience and bioengineering at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), and is head of the Neuroengineering Laboratory at EPFL's School of Life Sciences.[1][2][3]

Professor

Pavan P. Ramdya
Pavan Ramdya in 2016
Born1979 (age 43–44)
New York City
CitizenshipUnited States
Academic background
EducationNeuroscience
Alma materDrew University
Harvard University
Doctoral advisorFlorian Engert
Other advisorsRichard Benton
Dario Floreano
Michael Dickinson
Academic work
DisciplineNeuroscience
Sub-disciplineNeuroengineering
InstitutionsÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Main interestsNeuroscience
Neuroengineering
Robotics
Synthetic neurobiology
Websitehttps://ramdya-lab.epfl.ch

Career

Ramdya studied neuroscience first at Drew University, where he received his bachelor's degree with honors (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in 2001.[4] He continued his studies at Harvard University and in 2009 received a PhD for his work in the group of Florian Engert.[5][6] He then went on to perform postdoctoral work in neurogenetics and robotics in the laboratories of Richard Benton at University of Lausanne (UNIL) and Dario Floreano at EPFL, respectively. There he studied locomotor control and collective behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.[7][8][9] In 2015, he moved to the California Institute of Technology to work as a visiting postdoctoral fellow with Michael Dickinson where he developed a means for imaging motor circuit activity in behaving Drosophila.[10][11]

Since 2017 he has been an assistant professor for neuroscience at EPFL, and head of the Neuroengineering Laboratory located at both the Brain Mind Institute and at the Institute of Bioengineering of EPFL's School of Life Sciences.[1][2][3][12]

Research

Ramdya's research is focused on reverse-engineering biological neuromechanical control to inspire the development of artificial systems that can mimic the flexibility and agility of animal behaviors. Specifically, he studies limb-dependent behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster, employing an interdisciplinary approach which draws on genetic manipulations, neural and behavioral recordings, and physics-based neural network models and simulations.[10][12][13][14][15][16]

His research was featured in National Geographic,[17] IEEE Spectrum,[18] Nature,[19] Quanta Magazine,[20] and Le Monde.[21]

Distinctions

He is a member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence.[22] He has been the recipient of HFSP Long-term and Career Development Awards,[23] and the UNIL Biology and Medicine, Young Investigator Award in Basic Science.[3] In 2019, he was granted the SNSF Eccellenza Grant.[24]

Selected works

References
  1. "Brexit: closer cooperation with the UK cannot replace participation in Horizon 2020 | ETH-Board". www.ethrat.ch. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  2. "Neuroengineering Laboratory ‐ EPFL". www.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  3. "Keynote speakers" (PDF). Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  4. "Curriculum vitae - Pavan Ramdya" (PDF). 2019-02-16.
  5. "Alumni". Engert Lab. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  6. Ramdya, Pavan; Engert, Florian (2008-08-10). "Emergence of binocular functional properties in a monocular neural circuit". Nature Neuroscience. 11 (9): 1083–1090. doi:10.1038/nn.2166. ISSN 1097-6256. PMC 2958220. PMID 19160507.
  7. Ramdya, Pavan; Lichocki, Pawel; Cruchet, Steeve; Frisch, Lukas; Tse, Winnie; Floreano, Dario; Benton, Richard (2014-12-24). "Mechanosensory interactions drive collective behaviour in Drosophila". Nature. 519 (7542): 233–236. Bibcode:2015Natur.519..233R. doi:10.1038/nature14024. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4359906. PMID 25533959.
  8. Ramdya, Pavan; Thandiackal, Robin; Cherney, Raphael; Asselborn, Thibault; Benton, Richard; Ijspeert, Auke Jan; Floreano, Dario (2017-03-17). "Climbing favours the tripod gait over alternative faster insect gaits". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 14494. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814494R. doi:10.1038/ncomms14494. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5321742. PMID 28211509.
  9. Maesani, Andrea; Ramdya, Pavan; Cruchet, Steeve; Gustafson, Kyle; Benton, Richard; Floreano, Dario (2015-11-23). Faisal, Aldo A (ed.). "Fluctuation-Driven Neural Dynamics Reproduce Drosophila Locomotor Patterns". PLOS Computational Biology. 11 (11): e1004577. Bibcode:2015PLSCB..11E4577M. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004577. ISSN 1553-7358. PMC 4657918. PMID 26600381.
  10. Chen, Chin-Lin; Hermans, Laura; Viswanathan, Meera C.; Fortun, Denis; Aymanns, Florian; Unser, Michael; Cammarato, Anthony; Dickinson, Michael H.; Ramdya, Pavan (2018-10-22). "Imaging neural activity in the ventral nerve cord of behaving adult Drosophila". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 4390. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.4390C. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06857-z. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6197219. PMID 30348941.
  11. "PEOPLE | Dickinson Lab". dickinsonlab.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  12. Günel, Semih; Rhodin, Helge; Morales, Daniel; Campagnolo, João; Ramdya, Pavan; Fua, Pascal (2019-10-04). O'Leary, Timothy; Calabrese, Ronald L; Shaevitz, Josh W (eds.). "DeepFly3D, a deep learning-based approach for 3D limb and appendage tracking in tethered, adult Drosophila". eLife. 8: e48571. doi:10.7554/eLife.48571. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 6828327. PMID 31584428.
  13. Ramdya, Pavan; Thandiackal, Robin; Cherney, Raphael; Asselborn, Thibault; Benton, Richard; Ijspeert, Auke Jan; Floreano, Dario (2017-02-17). "Climbing favours the tripod gait over alternative faster insect gaits". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 14494. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814494R. doi:10.1038/ncomms14494. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5321742. PMID 28211509.
  14. Uhlmann, Virginie; Ramdya, Pavan; Delgado-Gonzalo, Ricard; Benton, Richard; Unser, Michael (2017-04-28). "FlyLimbTracker: An active contour based approach for leg segment tracking in unmarked, freely behaving Drosophila". PLOS ONE. 12 (4): e0173433. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1273433U. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0173433. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5409058. PMID 28453566.
  15. Ramdya, Pavan; Lichocki, Pawel; Cruchet, Steeve; Frisch, Lukas; Tse, Winnie; Floreano, Dario; Benton, Richard (2014-12-24). "Mechanosensory interactions drive collective behaviour in Drosophila". Nature. 519 (7542): 233–236. Bibcode:2015Natur.519..233R. doi:10.1038/nature14024. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4359906. PMID 25533959.
  16. Gosztolai, Adam; Günel, Semih; Abrate, Marco Pietro; Morales, Daniel; Ríos, Victor Lobato; Rhodin, Helge; Fua, Pascal; Ramdya, Pavan (2020-09-20). "LiftPose3D, a deep learning-based approach for transforming 2D to 3D pose in laboratory animals". bioRxiv: 2020.09.18.292680. doi:10.1101/2020.09.18.292680. S2CID 221882266.
  17. Yong, Ed (2014-12-24). "The Wisdom of the Fly Crowds". National Geographic. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  18. "Six-Legged Robot One-Ups Nature With Faster Gait". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  19. Kwok, Roberta (2019-09-30). "Deep learning powers a motion-tracking revolution". Nature. 574 (7776): 137–138. Bibcode:2019Natur.574..137K. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-02942-5. PMID 31570871. S2CID 203592858.
  20. Cepelewicz, Jordana (10 December 2019). "To Decode the Brain, Scientists Automate the Study of Behavior". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  21. "Ce robot à six pattes a trouvé une façon plus rapide de se déplacer que les insectes". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  22. "PAVAN RAMDYA – FKNE". Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  23. "Awards | Human Frontier Science Program". www.hfsp.org. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  24. "Eccellenza: List of awardees (2019)" (PDF). 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.