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Physicist, computational neuroscientist

Alexandre René

Aachen, Germany

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About

At university I studied both physics and mathematics, drawn by this seeming magical power of mathematics to achieve deep understanding of the natural world. This fascination continues to drive my research today. I entered computational neuroscience during my graduate studies, attracted to a field which seems to have unbounded potential for mathematization: brains are unimaginably complex biological systems, and simply cataloging their constituents will not suffice to explain how they work. Therefore we need effective models whose interactions we can understand in terms of mathematics. However exactly because these systems are so complex, creating models that are both accurate and understandable is very difficult. To address this, I develop computational tools which blend machine learning with classic dynamical systems theory. The goal is to learn models more expressive than what can be fitted using dynamical systems alone, but which still provide deep insights into the biology, in ways a pure deep learning approach cannot. More recently I have also looked for principles of computation in artificial deep neural networks. I believe strongly in FAIR and open research, and do my best to make my work reusable whenever possible.

Current institution

RWTH Aachen

Research focus

Data-driven dynamical systems

Topics

Inverse problems
Effective models
Model comparison
Data assimilation
Computational neuroscience
Theory of deep learning
EEG
Bayesian inference
Stochastic differential equations
Delay differential equations

Main tools

Machine learning
Bayesian inference
Bifurcation analysis
Markov chain Monte Carlo

Publications
Teaching
Software projects
Academic history

Papers

Learning Interacting Theories from Data
Decomposing neural networks as mappings of correlation functions
Inference of a mesoscopic population model from population spike trains
Mean, covariance, and effective dimension of stochastic distributed delay dynamics
Excitation of complex spin dynamics patterns in a quantum-dot electron spin ensemble
All-optical tomography of electron spins in (In,Ga)As quantum dots
Temperature dependence of hole spin coherence in (In,Ga)As quantum dots measured by mode-locking and echo techniques
Herzberg circuit and Berry’s phase in chirality-based coded qubit in a triangular triple quantum dot