Awarded in 2015
Home Department: Applied Physics
Faculty Advisors: Manu Prakash (Bioengineering), Jan Skotheim (Biology), and Tim Stearns (Biology)

Research Title: Collective ciliary modes govern organism-scale behavior -- Decision making in the world’s simplest animal

Research Description: Life is the ultimate innovator. And yet, life’s beautifully coordinated dynamics present many challenges to our ability to harness and mimic for societal gain. Matthew strives at the axis of experiment and theory to bridge organelle-resolved, spatiotemporal dynamics (individual cilia) with organismal decision making. This work is developing stereotype-free quantification of complex behavior, over two orders of magnitude in space and four in time, by embracing neuroscience-inspired approaches to probe the emergence of multicellular computation in a phylogenetically important living fossil. Mapping microstate dynamics to macroscopic information processing is critical to the evolution of the neurosystem and the next-generation of adaptive technologies.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Matthew has been selected for a fellowship at the Allen Institute’s neurosciences program.