Sompolinsky Receives Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

For immediate release.

SOMPOLINSKY RECEIVES SWARTZ PRIZE FOR THEORETICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE

Washington — The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has awarded the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience to Haim Sompolinsky, PhD. Supported by The Swartz Foundation, this prize, which includes $25,000, recognizes an individual who has produced a significant cumulative contribution to theoretical models or computational methods in neuroscience. The award was presented during Neuroscience 2011, SfN’s annual meeting and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

“The Society is pleased to recognize the exceptional contributions of Dr. Sompolinsky to the field of theoretical neuroscience,” said Susan G. Amara, PhD, president of SfN. “His work, blending physics and neuroscience, has established innovative methods and set rigorous standards for advancing the field.”

Sompolinsky has worked to develop the field of theoretical neuroscience throughout his career. His research helped shape system-level brain theory using principles and methods of statistical physics and dynamical systems. Sompolinsky’s “ring” model has served as a key paradigm for modeling neural circuits and has been the basis of countless studies of short-term memory, decision-making, selectivity, and receptive fields.

Sompolinsky earned his PhD at Bar Ilan University and is currently a professor at The Hebrew University.

The Society for Neuroscience is an organization of more than 41,000 researchers and clinicians who study the brain and nervous system.