Summary

I am a postdoctoral research scientist in the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University. I did my graduate work with David Freedman at The University of Chicago.

In my research, I like to think about how the neural code solves problems such as: remaining robust in the face of noise (or other disorder), allows for generalization across different contexts and between different stimuli, represents multiple different stimuli at once without confusing them, and -- of course -- how it does all of this at once! I believe that the fact that the brain must often represent multiple stimuli simultaneously is an important constraint on the neural code that is understudied in theoretical neuroscience. As a result, much of my current work is at least obliquely related to this topic.

Outside my research, I am a member and steward of the Columbia Postdoctoral Worker union. I am interested in cooperative living, eating, and other forms of sharing resources. Other activities, interests, and hobbies include: working toward police and prison abolition, reading poetry, gardening, learning to paint and draw, playing board games, backpacking, canoeing, canyoneering.

Related to some of these interests, I have recently completed a zine project: A botanical companion to The Wild Iris (web, pdf), a reference companion to the book of poetry by Louise Gluck.

Pronouns: he/they
Email: wjj (at) posteo (dot) net
Github: github.com/wj2
Twitter: @wjeffjohnston