[alife] Announcement: FIAS Summer School - Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems (05-27. Aug. 2006, Frankfurt/Main, Germany)

[Vasile Vlad Moca]

Announcement and Call for Applications:

Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) Summer School:

Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems

We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in 
Frankfurt, Germany from Saturday, August 5 to Sunday, August 27, 2006. The 
application deadline is Saturday, April 15, and application instructions are 
described at the bottom of this document.


FACULTY:

Larry ABBOTT, Columbia University, USA
Ad AERTSEN, University of Freiburg, Germany
Dana BALLARD, University of Rochester, USA
Emery BROWN, Harvard and MIT, USA
György BUZSÁKI, Rutgers University, USA
Yves FRÉGNAC, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Wulfram GERSTNER*, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, France
Rainer Goebel, Maastricht University, Netherlands
Claudius GROS, Goethe University, Germany
Wolfgang MAASS, FIAS, Germany and Technische Universität Graz, Austria
Bartlett MEL, University of South California, USA
Gordon PIPA, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany
John RINZEL*, New York University, USA
Wolf SINGER, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany
Andrey SOLOV'YOV, FIAS, Germany
Jochen TRIESCH, FIAS, Germany and UC San Diego, USA
Christoph VON DER MALSBURG, FIAS, Germany
Carl VAN VREESWIJK, René Descartes University, France

*invited


GOALS:

There is a deficiency in the exchange of ideas between theoretical 
physicists and experimental biologists.  This arises from different 
background knowledge bases and viewpoints, even when addressing the same 
problem.  The aim of the FIAS Summer School on Theoretical Neuroscience and 
Complex Systems is to provide a bridge linking experimentalists and 
theorists.  The school also addresses the challenge of further developing 
theoretical sciences and transferring existing concepts into the 
interdisciplinary field of neuroscience.  This transference will be highly 
dependent on the successful training of students so that they can bridge the 
different fields.  Applicants will work on projects that they themselves 
propose, and to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations, each student will 
be assigned a "working-group" comprising one experimental neuroscientist, 
one theoretical neuroscientist, and one theoretical physicist.


FORMAT:

The three-week summer workshop will include a preschool that will take place 
at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt.  During these 
three days, theoretical physicists will be trained in basic concepts of 
neuroscience, experimental neuroscientists will be trained in basic concepts 
of network theory and complex systems, and theoretical neuroscientists will 
be trained in experimental neuroscience.  The first two days of the summer 
school will be used to introduce the main concepts of neuronal systems and 
information processing.  The second week is devoted to the characterization 
and analysis of neural recordings, as well as to the description and 
modeling of neurons, synapses, and small networks. The third week introduces 
approaches for modeling higher cognitive functions.  Throughout, 
participants work on projects that they themselves propose, and this work 
will be carried out in collaboration with an interdisciplinary working-group 
comprising one experimental neuroscientist, one theoretical neuroscientist, 
and one theoretical physicist.  Lectures will be held in the mornings from 
Monday-Friday, while students will work on their projects in the afternoons 
from Monday-Wednesday.  Intra-group progress reports will be presented on 
Wednesday and Friday evenings.  A preview of the following week's lectures 
will be provided on Thursday afternoons to ensure that all participants are 
comfortable with the material to be discussed.  Saturdays will be devoted to 
"theory in practice" and participants will have the chance to visit actual 
research laboratories: MPIH (Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research) in 
Frankfurt and the Honda Research Institute in Offenbach. Each Sunday will be 
reserved for recreational opportunities, and on the final day of the summer 
school, the projects will be presented.

The scientific program will cover the following areas:

- Neuroanatomy

- Neurophysiology

- Basics in modeling of neurons

- Realistic models of neural microcircuits

- Abstract models of higher-level functions

- Outlook to other complex systems


LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:

FIAS is a Foundation of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University and is located 
on the natural science campus, Riedberg, in Frankfurt am Main. It also has 
close collaboration with the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the J.W. 
Goethe-University and the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and 
Biophysics.  The preschool will take place at the Max-Planck Institute for 
Brain Research.  Students and Lecturers will stay in the Marriott Courtyard 
Frankfurt Nordwestzentrum. The hotel is located very close to the FIAS 
Institute and has excellent access to the public transport system.


FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT:

FIAS organizes the summer school and covers the accommodation and the 
cultural Program. Students have to pay a registration fee of 150 euro. 
Students from Easter European countries or students in general who need 
support for their travel expenses can apply for reimbursement and a waiver 
for the registration fee.  Please indicate this in your application if you 
are considering applying for reimbursement.  We will also need an estimation 
of your travel expenses.


HOW TO APPLY:

Students who have a bachelor, a master, a Ph.D., or other equivalent degrees 
can apply for this summer school.  To apply, please provide two letters of 
recommendation, a curriculum vitae, as well as a one page description of a 
small project she/he is planning to work on during the course. The project 
proposal should outline the basic idea as well as problems the student might 
have faced so far.  Based on the proposal, the committee will group students 
to teams and assign interdisciplinary faculty to each individual team.

Information about applying and the summer school in general can be found at 
the website: http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/

A copy of the summer school announcement can be downloaded from:
http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/FIAS_summerschool_Poster_A2.pdf

Application will include:

- First name, last name, affiliation, valid e-mail address
- Two letters of recommendation
- Curriculum Vitae
- Project proposal (max. one page)
- Request for reimbursement of travel expenses (if applicable)

Please send your documents in an electronic format to: 
neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de

The application deadline is Saturday, April 15, 2006.
Applicants will be notified by e-mail by May 1, 2006.

For further information, please contact:

Denise Meixler (neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de)
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University
Max-von-Laue-Str. 1
60438 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

tel: +49 69 798 47601
fax: +49 69 798 47611