Our Team

Degree: Ph.D., Systems Neuroscience

Professor, Department of Neurobiology
Chair, Graduate Program in Computational Neuroscience
The University of Chicago

Member:
Graduate Program in Computational Neuroscience
Graduate Program in Neurobiology
Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology, and Human Behavior

Email: dfreedman@uchicago.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Degree: B.A., Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology

Favorite language: The call of the wild 

More about Alessandra: Alessandra is interested in quantifying animal behavior, specifically in non-human primates. She joins the Freedman Lab with a background in primate studies in wild, zoo, and sanctuary settings. Other passions include singing, dancing, and watching sunrises wherever she travels.

Email: aasilva@uchicago.edu 

Degree: Ph.D., Neuroscience

Favorite Languages: Julia, MATLAB, C 

More about Kenneth: Kenneth develops and applies statistical tools to answer questions about visual processing and decision making in the primate cortex. His work primarily focuses on characterizing spike trains recorded in the lateral intraparietal (LIP) cortex and frontal eye fields (FEF) during categorization tasks. He is interested in understanding how categorical representations in these areas depend on training history. 

Email: latimerk@uchicago.edu 

Website: www.kennethlatimer.com  

Degree: Ph.D. Neuroscience

Favorite Language: Matlab, Python

More about Sihai: Sihai is interested in exploring how neural activity represents higher cognitive functions and manipulates subjects’ behavioral outputs. Before joining the team, Sihai finished his PhD with research illustrating functional specialization of different cortical areas in Working Memory.

Email: sihaili@uchicago.edu

Degree: Ph.D., Particle Physics

Favorite Language: Python 

More about Matthew: Matthew is interested in developing biologically inspired artificial neural networks to gain both a greater understanding of them and their biological analogues. Before joining the Lab, Matthew completed his PhD investigating decays of B mesons at CERN’s LHCb experiment.

Email: mjtilley@uchicago.edu 

Degree: B.S., Neuroscience

Favorite Language: Python

More about Ali: I’m an expert doodle artist and I have never burned a loaf of banana bread in my life.

Email: ahalamri@uchicago.edu

Degree: B.A., Computer Science

Favorite Language: Python

More about Matt: Interested in the logic of biological computations + in search of the perfect pour-over.

Email: mattrosen@uchicago.edu 

Degree: M.S., Behavioral Neurosciences 

Favorite Language: Estonian

Email: bpeysakhovich@uchicago.edu

Degree: B.S., Biochemistry

Favorite Language: Classical piano music 

More about Oliver: Oliver is interested in how neural mechanisms underlying categorization and decision making are employed and coordinated across multiple brain regions. He also dabbles in the dark arts of artificial neural networks and hopes that it will solve all the problems in his life. Whatever problems remain he hopes to solve with ramen and hamburgers. 

Email: zhuou@uchicago.edu 

Degree: B.S., Mathematics 

Favorite Language: Bahasa Indonesia 

Email: rheza@uchicago.edu 

Website: https://rhezab.readthedocs.io/ 

Degree: B.A., Neuroscience 

Favorite Language: Poetry 

More about Sam: An original poem about recording from neurons: 

I met It 

the other day; 
 

Its face was waves 

Its voice was rain.


Email: samueldavid@uchicago.edu 

Degree: B.A., Biology; B.A., Computer Science

Favorite Language: Español

Email: ariah@uchicago.edu

Degree: B.S. candidate, Neuroscience

Favorite Language: Penguinese

Email: suchang@uchicago.edu 

Degree: B.S. candidate, Computer Science

Favorite Language: Jazz

Email: alexmedoff@uchicago.edu

Degree: B.S. candidate, Neuroscience

Favorite Language: Russian

More about Amelia: Amelia is a Neuroscience major at UChicago, and has been working in Dr. Freedman’s lab since her first quarter. She also plays piano and is often seen performing on campus. She hopes to apply to medical schools in a few years.

Email: asimonoff@uchicago.edu

Degree: B.S. candidate, Neuroscience

Favorite language: Spanish

More about Sophie: Sophie is an undergraduate researcher with strong interests in criminal and abnormal neuroscience, as well as neurolinguistics. When not in the lab she is busy doing photography, teaching and enjoying sailing, or baking up something tasty in the kitchen.

Degree: Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience

Favorite Language: Python 

Email: wjeffreyjohnston@gmail.com  

Website: wj2.github.io 

Degree: Ph.D., Neuroscience

Currently: Peking University

Degree: Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience

Lab Member: 2013 – 2019

Currently: Postdoctoral Researcher, Doris Tsao’s Lab, California Institute of Technology

Degree: M.D., Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience

Lab Member: 2009 – 2014

Degree: M.D., Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience

Lab Member: 2008 – 2012

Degree: M.D., Ph.D., Computational Neuroscience

Lab Member: 2010 – 2015

Degree: Ph.D., Neurobiology

Lab Member: 2008 – 2012

Currently: Research Specialist, Unilever Corporation