Greg Horwitz – Principal Investigator
Greg was born in Eugene, Oregon, grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and returned to the Pacific Northwest to join the faculty at the University of Washington in 2007. He and members of his lab use tools from neurophysiology, statistics, and viral gene delivery to study the neural basis of vision and perceptual decision-making. Greg is particularly enthusiastic about microfabricated electrode arrays and cis-regulatory elements to achieve experimental access to individual cell types in the visual system.
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Luke Bun – Graduate Student
Luke was born and raised in Seattle. Seeking an academic challenge, at the ripe age of 15, Luke started his undergrad at the UW. While majoring in Neuroscience, he found himself fascinated by neural engineering. Wanting to learn more about the technical side of neural engineering, Luke moved down the street to the Department of Bioengineering to complete a Ph.D. He is interested in the function and computations of complex cells in cortical area V1 and analogous units in convolutional neural networks. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing video games and learning about US and world history.
Padideh Yazdan-Shahmorad – Graduate Student
Padideh was born and raised in Esfahan, Iran. She has a bachelor’s in Physics from Isfahan University of Technology and a master’s in cognitive rehabilitation from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. She moved to Seattle to pursue her graduate education in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program in April 2021. She is interested in visual neuroscience. Her research focuses on developing a new tool to inactivate neural activity in a powerful and reversible way, by combining an optical system with a genetically engineered vector. In her free time, Padideh enjoys running, hiking, watching movies and cooking.
Ryan Ressmeyer – Graduate Student
A Seattle native, Ryan joined the Horwitz Lab after receiving his degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Now, Ryan designs high-resolution digital eye trackers to study the functional properties of the early visual system with high precision. Outside of the lab, Ryan can be found climbing, gaming, woodworking, and playing Ultimate Frisbee.