Mentorship philosophy

If you join LOGIC, you will quickly get a feel for our research philosophy - and just how deeply interdisciplinary our work really is. We draw from psychology, cognitive science, neurobiology, engineering, computer science, statistics, and even art and philosophy.

At this point, some of you might be wondering: Do I need to already know all of that to succeed in this lab?

The short answer is: no. To be totally transparent, succeeding in our lab will eventually require you to be reasonably competent in several of those areas. But you don’t need to walk in already knowing them. My job is to help you build the knowledge and skills you’ll need.

If you've graduated from college, you likely already have the critical thinking skills needed to get started. I mean this sincerely: as long as you bring curiosity, an open mind, and a strong willingness to learn, there are no formal prerequisites for joining our lab. Of course, prior experience in some of these fields will help you get up to speed faster. But if you're motivated, willing to put in the effort, and open to learning across disciplines, you can absolutely thrive here - no matter your starting point.

What are my goals for LOGIC?

I started LOGIC because I care deeply about science. I'm drawn to tough, long-term problems - the kind that can take years to crack and don’t always come with immediate rewards. These are the challenges I find most exciting.

At a high level, LOGIC is about understanding how biological brains think. To do this, we also study other complex - often artificial - systems. Some of the questions that drive our research include: How do we use existing knowledge to solve entirely new problems? How is that knowledge combined in flexible, novel ways? How do those internal representations shift as we learn? And how can similar knowledge be repurposed creatively to tackle very different challenges?

These kinds of questions aren’t just intellectually interesting, they also have the potential to support long-term efforts in both neuroscience and AI. Some of our work may eventually inform treatments for psychiatric illness; other projects may contribute to building more intelligent, adaptable artificial systems.

Our research spans multiple brain areas, model organisms, and a wide range of experimental and computational tools. We’ll go wherever the science takes us. We’ll build whatever we need to get there. And we’ll collaborate freely, sharing ideas, tools, and resources along the way.

But science is only one part of what LOGIC is about. My larger ambition is mentorship. I want to train the next generation of scientific leaders. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people leave the lab to start their own independent careers, whether in academia, industry, government, or something entirely different. You don’t have to stay in neuroscience (though I’ll admit, that would make me smile). What matters most to me is that you’re excellent at what you do, and that you feel equipped to pursue the goals that matter to you.

I’m not here to be your manager. I’m here to be your mentor - someone who supports you, challenges you, and helps position you to succeed on your own terms. That means your goals and values may sometimes diverge from mine. And when that happens, my commitment is clear: I’ll do my best to prioritize you, your research, and your well-being.

What will you learn in the lab?

I like being present in the lab, and I take mentorship seriously, both on the big-picture ideas and the nitty-gritty details. Along with others in the lab, I’ll teach you what you need to know to pursue the research that excites you most. Sometimes that means stepping back and thinking big: What are the major open questions in the field? How can we meaningfully move the needle? Other times, it means getting into the weeds, like figuring out what clock speed RAM to buy for a neurophysiology rig. You’ll learn a wide range of skills here, including:

★ Animal behavior training and handling

★ Designing and building experimental rigs (both hardware and software)

★ Building custom high-performance, real-time systems

★ Computer networking and system integration

★ Performing surgeries and acute neural recordings

★ Creating scalable data infrastructure for 100s of terabytes of data

★ Writing software pipelines for data processing and analysis

★ Building models of neural activity and behavior, including neural networks

★ Designing visualizations that are both effective and (ideally) aesthetically pleasing

★ Running rigorous, reproducible analyses, including statistical modeling

★ Turning results into manuscripts, grants, and fellowships

★ Preparing and giving talks and posters

★ Navigating the job market and setting yourself up for long-term success

What do I think makes for a happy and successful lab?

Be an active member of the team

A healthy lab culture doesn’t just happen, it’s something we all build together. I expect everyone in LOGIC to contribute to the collective success of the group. That means asking your labmates how their work is going. How their animals are doing. How they are doing. If someone’s stuck, offer to help them brainstorm (if they’re open to it). If you’ve written code or built something that could be useful to them, share it.

Sometimes those contributions will turn into formal collaborations. But please don’t make your help conditional on being listed as an author. More often than not, understanding the details of a related project will unexpectedly spark new insights for your own. For that reason, I want everyone to have a working knowledge of every project in the lab. You should be able to explain its core goals to a fellow scientist and address their questions thoughtfully. This may sound like a high bar, and it is. But while our projects are diverse, they all feed into a shared set of big questions. For us to build on one another’s work in a meaningful way, we each need to know what came before, what succeeded, what gaps remain, and what next steps make sense.

You will take ownership of your project

I want to train scientific leaders. And leadership starts with ownership. No one in the lab is simply “assigned” a project. Instead, I’ll share a set of directions the lab is excited about. Together, we’ll spend time developing questions, designing experiments, and mapping out possible analyses. But you’ll be in the driver’s seat. You’re responsible for charting the course - from background reading to experimental design, from data collection to analysis and communication.

You should be reading the literature. Running pilot experiments. Scheduling meetings with other lab members and researchers across campus. Bring me your half-baked - or even quarter-baked - ideas anytime. Ask “basic” questions. (Or, if you're feeling shy, see the earlier point about being part of a supportive team.) Think of me as your biggest supporter - and your most enthusiastic collaborator. I will help you do your best work. But I won’t do it for you. I won’t run your experiments, analyze your data, write your papers, or design your posters. And, honestly, you wouldn’t want me to because those things should reflect you. What I will do is offer constructive, detailed feedback at every stage. Sometimes too much feedback. But always in service of helping you grow.

When you leave the lab, I want you to feel ownership over what you've built. I want you to be proud of the skills you've developed, the ideas you've tested, and the discoveries you've made.

Scientific integrity matters

We’re in the business of seeking truth. And right now, trust in science and medicine is fragile. That means we need to hold ourselves to the highest standards, not just in our work, but in how we think about that work. I’d rather you leave the lab with one solid, enduring piece of research than a handful of papers that don’t hold up under scrutiny. Being critical of our own results, and of our assumptions, is part of doing honest science. It’s something I deeply value and something I will always encourage.

Your well-being comes first

There will be times when you feel overwhelmed. That’s normal, it’s happened to me many times in my own training. What matters is knowing that you’re not alone. If you’re struggling, I want you to come talk to me. There is no scenario in which a project will ever take precedence over your health or well-being.

Likewise, your time is valuable. If you're no longer excited about what you’re working on, I want to hear about it, even if it leads to a big change. I switched labs a couple years into my PhD, and I know how difficult - but necessary - that kind of pivot can be. Most of the time, the solution is simpler: we can work together to find a new direction that motivates you. My promise is this: I will do everything in my power to help you get back on track, and to make sure you're working on something that energizes you. My goal is for every person in this lab to be healthy, happy, successful, and productive - in that order.