Sotiris Masmanidis, PhD

I am a physicist-turned-neuroscientist with a passion for mentoring students interested in plumbing the depths of the most amazing dynamical system in the known universe. My approach to training entails the following elements:

• I encourage people to think big and pursue fundamental problems in the field.
• To maximize my effectiveness as a mentor I maintain a small-sized lab of ideally between three and six trainees. This means that I am available for one-on-one meetings on a nearly daily basis, and that each trainee holds critical responsibilities to ensure the lab runs smoothly.
• Many of our past and current projects are highly collaborative in scope, and collaboration within and outside of the lab is strongly encouraged. We are also big proponents of open-source technology (check out our Technology tab).
• One of the lab's main technical strengths is our experience with in vivo electrophysiological recording tools to study the activity of neural populations during behavior. Everyone in the lab becomes proficient at recording and analyzing neural dynamics from behaving mice.
• Knowing how to code is not a prerequisite for joining the lab, but learning to code is a major aspect of everyone's training plan as it is essential for gaining proficiency in independently analyzing data.