Candidate Directors for the 2015 Elections

 Maurice Chacron

 Faculty Member

 McGill University
 Montreal
 Canada

I obtained my PhD in Physics in 2003 working on neural modeling working under Dr. Andre Longtin's supervision at the University of Ottawa. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oklahoma, I joined the department of Physiology at McGill University in 2006 where I have held the Canada Research Chair in Neural Information Coding and am now an associate professor. The goal of my research is to understand how sensory information is represented across brain areas and, importantly, how this leads to perception and behavior. Towards this end, we employ a variety of techniques including mathematical modeling, signal processing, in vitro as well as in vivo electrophysiology, and behavior. Our animal models include both lower vertebrates such as weakly electric fish as well as non-human primates.

Motivation: I have always been actively involved in promoting computational neuroscience since 2003, most recently by organizing the CNS2014 meeting in Quebec city. My ultimate goal is for the scientific community at large to gain a better understanding that mathematical modeling of neurons must be an integral part of any research program aimed at understanding brain function.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 4 to 5 CNS meeting(s), was reviewer for more than 5 meetings. OCNS member since 2011.

Other information: On top of regularly reviewing articles for computational journals such PLOS Computational Biology, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, I am a founding member of the Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN) whose goal is to promote computational neuroscience in Canada. I have also been a panel member for Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) grants in 2014 as well as 2015.

 Michele Giugliano

 Faculty Member

 University of Antwerp
 Antwerp
 Belgium

PhD in Bioengineering: Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 2001 , Postdoc: HFSPO long-term fellow, Univ. Bern, 2001-05 , Postdoc: Lab of Neural Microcircuitry, EPFL, Lausanne, 2005-08 , Visiting at Univ. Sheffield, UK, and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, 2011-present , Associate Professor: Dept. Biomed. Sci., Univ. Antwerpen, 2008-present , Group leader VIB at NERF, Leuven, 2014-present ,MG's research is active in the fields of Computational Neuroscience, Cellular Electrophysiology, and Neuroengineering. His interests focus on the biophysical mechanisms underlying cortical networks emerging activity, bridging the missing links between synaptic and single-cell properties and the dynamical network phenomena.

Motivation: As coorganizer of the CNS17 conference in Antwerpen, and in quality of former head of the INCF and of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, I would like to gain a much closer understanding of the operation of OCNS. Most importantly, I feel a commitment to contribute to its growth and further expansion of its activities in order to promote Computational Neuroscience throughout Europe and worldwide.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 2 to 3 CNS meeting(s). OCNS member since 2013.

 Boris Marin

 Postdoc Member

 University College London
 London
 United Kingdom

I obtained a BSc and a PhD in Physics from the University of Sao Paulo, under the supervision of Profs. Reynaldo Pinto and Eduardo Colli - including research internship periods with Profs. Gennady Cymbalyuk (GSU) and Pablo Varona (UAM). Since 2013, I have been a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Angus Silver at UCL, London. ,During my PhD, I have worked with deterministic and stochastic conductance-based models to address the interplay of chaos and noise in shaping single cell dynamics. I then joined the SilverLab to study synaptic integration in biophysically accurate network models. My current work also focusses on initiatives promoting greater reusability and reproducibility for computational models, such as the NeuroML/LEMS languages and the OpenSourceBrain Project, as well as 3d microscopy.

Motivation: As Neuroscience further develops to tackle higher level problems in neural computation, greater interplay between different techniques and approaches will prove invaluable. The OCNS, with its diverse member composition and visibility, is in a pivotal position to foster synergy across fields - a goal reflected in my work with heterogeneous groups/tools and collaborative, cross domain modelling.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 2 to 3 CNS meeting(s). OCNS member since 2009.

Other information: I have participated in the Latin American School on Comp Neuro as tutor (2010/12) and a lecturer (2016). I also contribute to technology development, including tools for automated model validation and code generation for NeuroML, and the Geppetto project, a web-based platform for multi-paradigm simulation (which underpins the OpenSourceBrain and OpenWorm projects).

 Victor Osamor

 Postdoc Member

 Covenant University
 Ota
 Nigeria

I am an Associate Professor of Bioinformatics in the Department of Computer Science, Covenant University, Nigeria. I hold a Ph.D degree in Computer Science, a Marie Curie Fellow/ERCIM fellow and a Visiting Scholar to University of Warsaw, Poland. My publications include authorship of three books and articles in reputable ISI indexed journals including Science, PLOS ONE etc. I won over 17 different grant awards, a member of the editorial board of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters (Springer - Thomson Reuters (ISI) indexed) and an Associate Editor of Covenant Journal of Informatics and Communication Technology (CJICT). I review for Medicinal Chemistry Research (Springer - ISI indexed), CCHTS (Bentham - ISI indexed) etc. My interest is in gene expression analysis on chip-seq and DNA-seq data of CNS and spinal Cord. We employ the application of computer graphics for brain atlas and animation of parts of the brain to express the understanding of the complex interacting mechanisms and activities.

Motivation: I am highly motivated to bring on board diversity to promote optimal representation and membership drive across all continents, encourage vibrant youthful computational skill acquisition in neuroscience, engender dynamic change in the organization's activities that will lead to innovation and improvement in CNS conference publication quality and turn around time.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 0 CNS meeting(s). OCNS member since 2014.

 Nicolas Rougier

 Faculty Member

 INRIA
 Talence
 France

I'm a full-time research scientist at INRIA which is the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. I'm working within the Mnemosyne lab which lies at the frontier between integrative and computational neuroscience in association with the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases. I'm trying to understand how a consistent behavior emerges from a purely distributed, numerical and adaptive computing. I've been working on neural fields, visual attention (superior colliculus, FEF), self-organization (somatosensory cortex) and more recently decision making (basal ganglia, thalamus & cortex).

Motivation: I would like to join the OCNS board in order to bring focus on specific computational issues such as good development practices, replication issues, shared modeling, open science, etc. I'm not sure how this can be done through OCNS but I would be definitely interested to talk with other directors in order to propose some actions to the computational neuroscience community.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 2 to 3 CNS meeting(s), was reviewer for 1 meetings. OCNS member since 2014.

Other information: * Founder and editor-in-chief of ReScience, a new peer reviewed journal dedicated to replication in Computational Science (rescience.github.io) ,* Deeply involved in the Scientific Python community (organizer/program chair/tutorial chair EuroScipy, lot of courses online)

 Leonid Rubchinsky

 Faculty Member

 Indiana University - Purdue University
 Indianapolis
 United States

Leonid Rubchinsky is an associate professor of mathematics and neuroscience at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and Indiana University School of Medicine. He received BS from University of Nizhny Novgorod, MS from University of California San Diego, and PhD from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He did postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Davis. His research interests include neural synchronization and applications to clinical neuroscience and neurology. He leads a collaboration of mathematicians and clinicians, who study neural oscillations and synchrony in Parkinson's disease. He uses clinical data, nonlinear time-series analysis and dynamical systems modeling to understand physiology and pathophysiology of neural circuits of the basal ganglia.

Motivation: CNS is the #1 meeting for the computational neuroscience. I think we can make OCNS more than just a meeting. I would like to promote the growth of the society for the benefit of CNS community: attract new members (theoreticians and experimentalists), advocate for research support for computational neuroscience, emphasize the societal impact of computational neuroscience.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended more than 5 CNS meeting(s), was reviewer for 2 to 3 meetings. OCNS member since 2011.

Other information: I attended my first CNS meeting 14 years ago and come to CNS almost every year ever since. I served CNS meeting & OCSN as a program committee member and organized 3 CNS workshops. I served on CRCNS panel and on Bernstein award for computational neuroscience Review Board. In my university I work on developing computational neuroscience program and organize a math-neuro seminar.

 Eleni Vasilaki

 Faculty Member

 University of Sheffield
 Sheffield
 United Kingdom

I am Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Computer Science, University of Sheffield and Visiting Professor (Gastprofessor) at the University of Antwerp. My field of expertise is Computational Neuroscience, and in particular Synaptic Plasticity. Prior to my Academic appointment in Sheffield, I was Scientific Collaborator in the groups of Prof. Wulfram Gerstner at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Prof. Walter Senn at the University of Bern. I hold a PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (University of Sussex), a Masters in Microelectronics (University of Athens) and a Bachelors degree (with distinction) in Informatics & Telecommunications (University of Athens).

Motivation: I would like to contribute to the Computational Neuroscience community via the OCNS, with the view to emphasize theoretical and computational work that makes sense of experimental neuroscience data, and increase our visibility within the Neuroscience community. Ideally, I would like to encourage sessions that highlight joint work between experimentalists and computational scientists or theorists.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended 2 to 3 CNS meeting(s), was reviewer for more than 5 meetings. OCNS member since 2015.

Other information: Academic editor for the PLOS One and PeerJ open access journals. Co-organiser of conference workshops for the Bernstein Conference 2014 and for the Computational Neuroscience Conference 2015. Reviewer for over 20 journals and conferences, including CNS. Main organiser for EU funded NAMASEN workshop on Computational modelling: from neurons to systems and behavior.

 Pierre Yger

 Postdoc Member

 INSERM
 Paris
 France

Pierre Yger is a young INSERM Researcher, working currently in the group of Dr. Romain Brette in Paris. After a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Yves Fregnac in computational neuroscience, focusing on plasticity in large-scale neuronal networks of spiking neurons, especially in the V1 area, he did a postdoc in London under the supervision of Dr. Kenneth Harris, and a collaboration in Janelia Farm with Karel Svoboda. His research topics are focused on synaptic plasticity and neuronal dynamics in primary sensory areas. He has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles in major journals (including several J. Neuro, PloS Comp Biol). His key position as an interdisciplinary scientist makes him the ideal candidate the OCNS position.

Motivation: Applying as a director of the OCNS is a great opportunity to be part of the organization of such a conference, and it will be a unique opportunity, to be at the center of my scientific community. As a young PI, I could bring a fresh view on how everything should be handled during the conference in order to guarantee its success. I regularly attended the conference, as I think that interdisciplinary research such as computational neuroscience will become more and more relevant in a near future.

OCNS and CNS participation: attended more than 5 CNS meeting(s). OCNS member since 2007.

Other information: Pierre Yger organized a plasticity workshop, in Praha, during OCNS 2015. As an interdisciplinary scientist, he also contributed to several tools for data analysis and simulation widely shared among the community (PyNN, Neo, Brian). He also worked as a tutor for the Okinawa summer school.