Roman Huszár

While at Dartmouth, I developed a fascination for the function of the nervous system. More specifically, I became interested in how the brain solves nontrivial problems such as flexible navigation for the purpose of achieving a goal. It is crucial to point out that framed as such, the problem is not so much about the biology of neurons as it is about the algorithms these neurons carry out. For this reason, I devoted my studies to a blend of neurobiology, computer science, and mathematics. At the same time, my research in the labs of David Bucci and Matthijs van der Meer resulted in a publication (Todd, Huszar et al., 2016), as well as a poster presentation at the Society for Neuroscience conference (Huszar et al., 2016). My work culminated in a thesis entitled “Towards an identification of state shifts in rodent CA1”, in which I explored theories of how the brain assigns stimulus meaning depending on context. In the spring of 2017, I graduated summa cum laude, eager to start my PhD in computational neuroscience at New York University. In the lab of Cristina Savin I studied changes in functional connectivity using tools borrowed from machine learning and statistical physics. Currently I work in the lab of Gyuri Buzsáki at NYU, where I study the physiology of hippocampal neural networks that allow organisms to store episodic memories. Hailing from the picturesque South Bohemian village Pištín, I obtained my secondary education at the Secondary Medical School in Ceske Budejovice, and the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire with the help of the ASSIST scholarship.