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Ilya NemenmanSamuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics and Biology

The Nemenman Lab

Lab Location:  Math & Science Center
Lab Phone:       

 

Education

  • Ph.D., Princeton University, 2000
  • M.S., San Francisco State University, 1997
  • B.S., Santa Clara University, 1995

Research Area

  • Neuroscience
  • Population Biology, Evolution, and Ecology
  • Computational Biology
  • Physics

Graduate Program Affiliation

  • Neuroscience
  • Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution
  • Physics

Research Description

My group is applying methods of theoretical physics and information theory to understand how biological systems, such as molecular circuits, entire cellular networks, single neurons, whole brains, and entire populations learn from their surrounding environment and respond to it (we call such phenomena biological information processing, learning, adaptation, memory, or evolution depending on the context). Put simply, often problems solved by such different biological systems are, essentially, the same, while the solution mechanisms are context-dependent. Focusing on the problems, instead of the solutions, reveals general principles underlying biological organization and allows transfer of knowledge across different biological domains.
 
Dr. Nemenman is a past chair of the Division of Biological Physics of the American Physics Society.

Research Lab Description

My group is applying methods of theoretical physics and information theory to understand how biological systems, such as molecular circuits, entire cellular networks, single neurons, whole brains, and entire populations learn from their surrounding environment and respond to it.

Publications