
- bvoytek@ucsd.edu
- (858) 534-0002
-
9500 Gilman Dr
CSB 169
Mail Code: 0515
La Jolla , California 92093
Associate Professor
Bradley Voytek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science, the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, and the Neurosciences Graduate Program at UC San Diego. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Neuroscience Research Fellow and National Academies Kavli Fellow, as well as a founding faculty member of the UC San Diego Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute and its undergraduate Data Science program, where he serves as Vice-chair.
His research program uses neural modeling and simulation, along with large-scale data mining and machine learning techniques, to understand the physiological basis of human cognition and age-related cognitive decline. To do this, we collect electrophysiological data from people, including invasive recordings from patients undergoing brain surgery. We also have extensive collaborations with colleagues who collect data from human iPSC-derived cortical organoids. Rather than asking, "What brain regions are associated with working memory?" we ask, "Given the computational properties and physiology of neurons and neural systems, how can they give rise to cognitive phenomena that look like 'working memory', and what are the behavioral and cognitive limitations and consequences of these constraints?"
He is a longtime advocate for promoting science to the public, and volunteers extensively to talk to students at all grade levels about the joys of scientific research. In addition to his academic publications, his outreach work has appeared in outlets ranging from Scientific American and NPR to the San Diego Comic-Con. He is also known for his zombie brain “research” and book, with friend and fellow neuroscientist Tim Verstynen, "Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?", by Princeton University Press.