Kanaka Rajan, PhD
Associate Professor
Kanaka Rajan, PhD, is a computational neuroscientist, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and a founding faculty member of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. Her research seeks to understand how important cognitive functions — such as learning, remembering, and deciding — emerge from the cooperative activity of multi-scale neural processes. Using data from neuroscience experiments, she applies computational frameworks derived from machine learning and statistical physics to uncover integrative theories about the brain that bridge neurobiology and artificial intelligence.
Education
PHD
Neuroscience, Columbia University in the City of New York
MS
Brandeis University
BTECH
Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University
Professional appointments
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY
Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Faculty
Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University
Associate Professor (Tenured)
Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY
Visiting Professor
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, NY
Visiting Professor
Samsung Artificial Intelligence Center (SAIC), NY
Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY
Biophysics Theory Fellow
Princeton University, NJ
Grant support
Lefler Small Grants Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $100,000 for one year)
Dean’s Innovation Award
Harvard Medical School (as Principal Investigator, funded $50,000)
Computational Theory of the Neural Mechanisms of Social Cognition Across Small Groups
(as Principal Investigator)
R01, National Institute of Mental Health
NIH (as Co-Investigator, $4,143,082, PI: Peter Rudebeck)
Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain Pilot Grant Program
(as Principal Investigator, $240,000)
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar
(as Principal Investigator, funded 100,000 CAD)
Curriculum Learning to Probe Learning and Generalization Mechanisms in the Brain
(as Principal Investigator)
RF1 (Competing Renewal of R01)
Theories, Models, and Methods pathway, NIH (as Principal Investigator, funded $1,259,010)
McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience Scholar Awards
(as Principal Investigator, funded $225,000)
Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain Pilot Grant Program
(as Principal Investigator, funded $240,000)
National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER)
(as Principal Investigator, funded $550,000 over 5 years)
Dyal Foundation Research Scholars Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $50,000)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
(as Principal Investigator, funded $70,000)
Friedman Research Scholars Award
from the DiSabato Family Foundation (as Principal Investigator, funded $50,000)
R01, National Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioimaging
Theories, Models, and Methods pathway, National Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioimaging (as Principal Investigator, funded $1,100,000)
NSF FOUNDATIONS Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $1,200,000)
Mindlin Foundation Award
Neuroscience meets Graphic Novel (as Principal Investigator)
Understanding Human Cognition Scholar Award
James McDonnell Foundation (as Principal Investigator, funded $600,000 over six years)
Visiting Fellowship
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (as Principal Investigator, funded $10,000 for one year)
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $65,000 over two years)
Awards and honors
Lefler Small Grants Award
Dean’s Innovation Award
Harvard Medical School
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar
Brain, Mind & Consciousness Program
McKnight Scholar Award
Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
Harold and Golden Lamport Basic Science Research Award
National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award
Travel Award, Organization for Computational Neurosciences
awarded at the 19th Annual Computational Neuroscience (CNS) meeting
Sloan-Swartz Theoretical Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellowship
Pulin Sampat Memorial Teaching Award
Brandeis University
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Junior Research Fellowship
Patents
Jointly Learning Visual Motion And Confidence From Local Patches In Event Cameras
Kepple, D.R., Lee, D.W., Isler, I.V., Rajan, K., Park, I.M., Lee, D. (May 27, 2021), U.S. Patent Application No. 17105028, US 2021/0158483 A1; United States Patent and Trademark Office https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/5c/ba/89/afb9786d5d95da/US20210158483A1.pdf
Mentoring experience
Yu Duan
PhD Candidate, MIT; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Mo Osman
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Madison Sneve
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Ann Huang
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Satpreet Singh, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Bingni W Brunton, Rajesh PN Rao, University of Washington), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Role: Advisor
Sonja Johnson-Yu
PhD Candidate in Computer Science, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Akshay Jaggi
Medical Student and PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Chris Harvey
Ryan Badman, PhD
(doctoral degree: Physics, Cornell), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Role: Advisor
Riley Simmons-Edler, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Sebastian Seung, Princeton), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Advisor
Manuel Beiran, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Srdjan Ostojic, EPFL), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS & Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University; Role: Co-Advisor
Christian Márton, PhD
(doctoral advisors: Simon Schultz, Imperial College London and Bruno Averbeck, NIH), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Advisor
Daniel Kepple, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Alex Koulakov, CSHL; first postdoc with Daniel Lee, Samsung AI Center, NYC), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: AdvisorResearch Engineer at Meta AI
Matthew Perich, PhD
(doctoral advisors: Lee Miller and Sara Solla, Northwestern), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Advisor Assistant Professor, joint appointment with University of Montreal & Mila-Quebec AI
Siyan Zhou
PhD Student at Harvard University; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Chris Harvey, Graduated: January 2024
Camille Spencer-Salmon, PhD
MD/PhD Student, ISMMS; Role: Doctoral advisor, Graduated: May 2023. Next position: Postdoc, Kafui Dzirasa, Duke University School of Medicine
Muhammad Furqan Afzal, PhD
PhD Student, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Helen Mayberg, Graduated: May 2023
Yosif Zaki, PhD
PhD Student, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Denise Cai. F31 grantee funded by the NIMH
Teaching experience
Guest Lecturer
Biological and Artificial Intelligence Course Undergraduate Seminar, Harvard University
Workshop Lecturer
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Guest Lecturer
Biostatistics Graduate Course, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Workshop Lecturer
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Tutorial Chair
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Tutorial on Recurrent Neural Network Models for Neuroscience
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting, February 23
Lecturer
Dynamic Brain School, Summer Island, Allen Institute & University of Washington
Lecturer
CNeuro, Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Summer School, August 14-21
Guest Lecturer
Graduate Seminar in Computational Neuroscience, Depts of Neuroscience, Data Science, and Computer Science, New York University, December 2
Neuromatch Academy Mentor
Lectureship
Department of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University for Methods and Logic in Quantitative Biology
Lecturer
Method and Logic in Quantitative Biology
Lecturer
Mathematics Bootcamp for Life Sciences – BioMath
Lecturer
Computational Neuroscience
Assistant Instructor
Computational Neuroscience
Teaching Assistant
Biology Laboratory
Teaching Assistant
Biostatistics and Statistical Methods in Neuroscience
Teaching Assistant
Comparative Neurophysiology
Professional service
Kempner Institute Graduate Fellowship Selection Committee
Harvard Medical School
Chair, Computational Neuroscience Tenure-Track Faculty Search
ISMMS
Member of Search Committee
Computational Psychiatry Center, ISMMS
Virtual Observatory of the Cortex (VORTEX)
National Institutes of Health
SPARC Program Panel
National Institutes of Health
Diversity Working Group
Friedman Brain Institute, Mount Sinai
EFRI BRAID Panel
National Institutes of Health
Space Radiation Brain Modeling Panel
NASA
Multiscale Modeling (MSM) Consortium
National Institutes of Health
IH/BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects
National Institutes of Health
CRCNS Grant Review Panel
National Science Foundation
Faculty Council (elected position)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Robust Intelligence Grant Review Panel
National Science Foundation
U19 Grant Review Panel
NINDS, National Institutes of Health
Conference activity
Neuroscience Department Seminar Series
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, June 5
Untangling Brain-wide Interactions Using Data-Constrained Modeling
LabRoots, March 6
Raynor Cerebellum Project Big Ideas Summit
Scottsdale, AZ, April 11
Harvard Medical School AI Media Immersion
Harvard University, May 30
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Annual Meeting
Victoria, BC, Canada, June 11-14
HMS Neurobiology Department Retreat
Harvard University, May 24
Cyber Council Meeting
Healdsburg, CA, May 3-5
Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain Annual Meeting
New York, NY, May 6-7
McKnight Foundation Neuroscience Conference
Aspen, CO, June 7-10
Functional Logic of Neural Circuits Workshop
February 29
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 4-5
Meet-the-Expert
Society for Neuroscience, November 12
Non-Human Primate Research Consortium Workshop (NHPNC)
Flatiron Institute, February 13-14
SfNova Lecture
Society for Neuroscience, November 11-15
Plenary Lecture
Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience Conference, September 26-29
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 13-14
Physics Modeling of Thought
Max Planck Institute in Berlin, January 10
Neural Systems Analysis Lab
Virtual Seminar, April 20
Functional Logic of Neural Circuits: Diamonds in the Rough
National Science Foundation, February 22-24
Virtual Seminar Series
Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at the University College London, March 30
Harvard Medical School and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Kempner Institute Seminar
Harvard University, December 9
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 21-22
UCSF Neuroscience Formal Seminar
University of California, San Francisco, January 27
Optogenetic Approaches to Understanding Neural Circuits and Behavior
Gordon Research Conference, July 18
Society for Neuroscience Dual Perspectives Panel, Population or Single Cell Coding: What is the Language of the Brain
November 14
Mount Sinai Morningside-West Hospital Psychiatry Grand Rounds
April 20
Keynote– Neural Computation and Engineering Connection
University of Washington, Shanahan Foundation, and Allen Institute, May 6
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience
Columbia University, November 11
Institute of Neuroinformatics Seminar
University of Zurich, May 6
Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics (AIND) Planning Workshop on Neurotheory
Allen Institute, February 8
9th Annual Gulf Coast Consortium (GCC) Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Conference
Gulf Coast Consortia, February 4
Brain Debate
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, July 9
FMI Young Investigator Seminar Series
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, December 10
Advances in Systems & Computational Neuroscience Symposium
Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, October 5
Stanford’s Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology Seminar Series
April 12
eLife Symposium on Computational and Systems Biology
September 9
Bernstein Conference
April 14
Special Seminar
Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, May 26
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience Invited Talk
Columbia University, March 26
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
August 24
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
June 3
Neuronal Ensembles Symposium
Kavli Foundation and Columbia University, May 5
Keynote– Towards Multipurpose Neural Network Models II: Model Testing and Model Fitting Workshop
Allen Brain Institute & European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience (EITN), October 10
Center for Computational Brain Science (CCBS) Seminar
Brown University, March 8
Swartz Theoretical Neuroscience Series Talk
NYU, March 12
Brain and Behavior Foundation Meet the Scientist Talk
February 9
Special Seminar
Grossman Center, University of Chicago, April 15
Tutorial on Recurrent Neural Networks for Neuroscience
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) virtual meeting, February 23
Co-organizer of Learning Salon
SciViz NYC Invited Speaker
December 2
Invited Speaker, Human Single Neuron Conference
Caltech, November 13
World Wide Theoretical Neuroscience Meeting Talk
November 18
BRAIN Initiative PI Meeting Highlight Talk
June 1
University of Bristol Computational Neuroscience Seminar
December 4
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), Recurrent Network Models of Adaptive and Maladaptive State Transitions
March 3
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), Recurrent Network Models of Evidence Accumulation
March 2
BRAINCoGs Special Seminar
Princeton University, October 7
8th Annual Virtual Conference Brain Function: In Health & Disease
NIH, March 11
Neuromatch Unconference Invited Talk
April 17
Neurotheory.world Talk
April 8
Friedman Brain Institute
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, June 15
Department of Physiology, Biophysics & Systems Biology
Weill Cornell College of Medicine, June 21
Extramural Postdoctoral Seminars at Columbia University (EPSC)
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University in the City of New York, June 7
Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) Seminar Series
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, April 7
BioX, Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Department of Bioengineering joint meeting
Clark Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, March 28-29
Network models of evidence accumulation and behavioral variability, Computational Neuroscience Initiative & Department of Bioengineering
University of Pennsylvania, March 31
Simons Foundation New York Area Neuroscience Workshop
Simons Foundation, NY, every other month
Partial-In Network Training, a method to explore the continuum between feedforward and random networks
Department of Neurobiology, Columbia University, May 6
Recurrent network models of sequence generation
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, January 19-21
Neural network models of evidence accumulation in the neocortex
Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference, New York, NY, September 6-8
Sequence generation and timing signals from calcium imaging data in cortical circuits, Emerging Tools for Acquisition and Interpretation of Whole-Brain Functional Data conference
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, November 1-4
Network models of slow timing signals and heterogeneous dynamics
Princeton Neuroscience Institute Annual Retreat, Red Bank, NJ, May 4-5
Network models of sequential neural activity and timing signals
Cold Spring Harbor Labs, July 8
Recurrent network models of sequences and timing signals, Hippocampal-Entorhinal Complexities: Maps, Cell Types and Mechanisms Conference
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, April 8-11
Recurrent network models of sequence generation
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 12-16
Neural Response Variability and Cortical Computation II
Banbury Center, NY, April 19
Sequence generation and timing signals in neural networks
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, October 12-17
Choice-specific sequences in the parietal cortex: a networks perspective, Computational Neuroscience Connection
Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, September 25-26
Rewiring or Reconfiguration? Choice-specific sequence generation in the posterior parietal cortex, Neural Population Dynamics Underlying Sensorimotor Integration Conference
Janelia Research Campus, June 9-10
Sequence Generation and Timing Signals in the Brain, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
March 3-4
79th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology: Cognition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories
NY, May 28-June 2
Generating slow timing signals from fast neural and synaptic biophysics, Temporal Dynamics Conference
Janelia Research Campus, May 13-16
Princeton Neuroscience Institute Annual Retreat
Philadelphia, PA, May 23
Temporal Dynamics Conference
Janelia Farm Research Campus Talk, May 13-16
Physics of Living Systems, National Science Foundation meeting
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, August 5-6
Sequence generation and timing signals in neural circuits for decision-making, Society for Neuroscience Nanosymposium
October 13-17
Characterizing Neural Responses to Structured and Naturalistic Stimuli, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
February 27-28
Cognitive Neuroscience Conference
Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Columbus, OH, December 10-14
Sloan-Swartz Annual Meeting
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, June 27-29
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Salt Lake City, UT, February 23-26
20th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium
Preceding the 42nd Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, October 11-12
CIRM workshop on Mean-field methods and multiscale analysis of neural populations
Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM), Marseille, France, October 3-7
Neural Response Variability and Cortical Computation I
Banbury Center, NY, April 3-6
NSF/NIH Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) meeting
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, October 9-11
Input-dependent suppression of chaos in recurrent neural networks, American Physical Society March Meeting
Portland, OR, March 15-19
Meaningful responses from a chaotic neural network exemplified in delayed two-frequency discrimination tasks, Gordon Research Conference on Neurobiology of Cognition
Waterville Valley, NH, July 11-24
Stimulus selectivity in neural networks with complex spontaneous activity, Statistical Analysis of Neural Data, SAND5
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, May 20-22
Stimulus-dependent suppression of intrinsic variability in recurrent neural networks, Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS)
San Antonio, TX, July 25-30
Interaction between intrinsic dynamics and stimulus-evoked responses in neural networks, BioX and Electrical Engineering Departments Seminar
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, June 23
Random matrices for neural networks
Princeton Center for Theoretical Science (PCTS) Rare Events in Biology symposium, February 3-4
