Neuroscientist Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz has been awarded a 2024 Scialog Molecular Basis of Cognition Award as part of a multidisciplinary team of early career scientists. In this third and final year of the Scialog: Molecular Basis of Cognition initiative, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation and the Walder Foundation conferred awards on six teams. Each of the 14 team members will receive $50,000.
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance.
The final meeting held in Tucson, Arizona, in October brought together 50 early career scientists from disciplines including neurobiology, engineering, computer science, neuroscience and related cognitive sciences to network and brainstorm ideas for novel research directions to advance fundamental understanding of how memory, thought, perception and cognition work in the brain at the molecular and system levels. Teams of two or three Fellows who had not previously collaborated wrote and pitched proposals for seed funding for innovative projects they developed at the conference.
The winning proposal by Fernandez-Ruiz and his teammates – Matthew Lovett-Barron of the University of California, San Diego, and Marcelo Mattar of New York University – was titled “Understanding the Neural Basis of Natural Behavior with Individualized artificial neural networks.”
“This project sits at the cross-roads of neuroscience, ethology and artificial intelligence,” said Fernandez-Ruiz. “We will employ modern AI approaches to model how animals explore the world to forage for food. This research will help us to understand the mechanisms of flexible, intelligent animal behavior and in turn inform the design of more powerful AI systems.
Fernandez-Ruiz is the Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences and assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences. His work seeks to dissect the circuit and cell-type specific mechanisms of neural circuit dynamics that support learning, memory and cognition, and how they became impaired in brain diseases, with the aim of understanding biological intelligence and developing novel therapeutic interventions to restore cognitive deficits.
His other recent honors include a MIND Prize (Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery) from the Pershing Square Foundation and a New Innovator Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.
Linda B. Glaser is the news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.
