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
Faculty
Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University
Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY
Visiting Professor
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, NY
Associate Professor (Tenured)
Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 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
U01, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
NIH (as Co-Investigator, $2,947,975, PI: Bence Olveczky)
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)
U19
BRAIN Integrated and Quantitative Approaches to Understanding Circuits, Towards a unified framework for dopamine signaling and basal ganglia function (as Project Lead, $2,892,246 to Rajan lab, PI: Bernardo Sabatini)
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar
(as Principal Investigator, funded 100,000 CAD)
Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain Pilot Grant Program
(as Principal Investigator, $240,000)
R01, National Institute of Mental Health
NIH (as Co-Investigator, $4,143,082, PI: Peter Rudebeck)
Curriculum Learning to Probe Learning and Generalization Mechanisms in the Brain
(as Principal Investigator)
McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience Scholar Awards
(as Principal Investigator, funded $225,000)
RF1 (Competing Renewal of R01)
Theories, Models, and Methods pathway, NIH (as Principal Investigator, funded $1,259,010)
National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER)
(as Principal Investigator, funded $550,000 over 5 years)
Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain Pilot Grant Program
(as Principal Investigator, funded $240,000)
Dyal Foundation Research Scholars Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $50,000)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
(as Principal Investigator, funded $70,000)
NSF FOUNDATIONS Award
(as Principal Investigator, funded $1,200,000)
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)
Friedman Research Scholars Award
from the DiSabato Family Foundation (as Principal Investigator, funded $50,000)
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
Dean’s Innovation Award
Harvard Medical School
Lefler Small Grants Award
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar
Brain, Mind & Consciousness Program
McKnight Scholar Award
National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award
Harold and Golden Lamport Basic Science Research Award
Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
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
Ann Huang
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Madison Sneve
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Mo Osman
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Yu Duan
PhD Candidate, MIT; Role: Rotation Supervisor
Akshay Jaggi
Medical Student and PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, Harvard University; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Chris Harvey
Sonja Johnson-Yu
PhD Candidate in Computer Science, 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
Riley Simmons-Edler, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Sebastian Seung, Princeton), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Advisor
Ryan Badman, PhD
(doctoral degree: Physics, Cornell), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Role: Advisor
Manuel Beiran, PhD
(doctoral advisor: Srdjan Ostojic, EPFL), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS & Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University; Role: Co-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
Christian Márton, PhD
(doctoral advisors: Simon Schultz, Imperial College London and Bruno Averbeck, NIH), Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Advisor
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
Muhammad Furqan Afzal, PhD
PhD Student, Department of Neuroscience, ISMMS; Role: Doctoral advisor, co-advised with Helen Mayberg, Graduated: May 2023
Camille Spencer-Salmon, PhD
MD/PhD Student, ISMMS; Role: Doctoral advisor, Graduated: May 2023. Next position: Postdoc, Kafui Dzirasa, Duke University School of Medicine
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
Workshop Lecturer
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Guest Lecturer
Biological and Artificial Intelligence Course Undergraduate Seminar, Harvard University
Tutorial Chair
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Workshop Lecturer
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Guest Lecturer
Biostatistics Graduate Course, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Lecturer
CNeuro, Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Summer School, August 14-21
Lecturer
Dynamic Brain School, Summer Island, Allen Institute & University of Washington
Tutorial on Recurrent Neural Network Models for Neuroscience
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting, February 23
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
Biostatistics and Statistical Methods in Neuroscience
Teaching Assistant
Biology Laboratory
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
U19 Grant Review Panel
NINDS, National Institutes of Health
Robust Intelligence Grant Review Panel
National Science Foundation
Faculty Council (elected position)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
CRCNS Grant Review Panel
National Science Foundation
IH/BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Projects
National Institutes of Health
Multiscale Modeling (MSM) Consortium
National Institutes of Health
Space Radiation Brain Modeling Panel
NASA
EFRI BRAID Panel
National Institutes of Health
Diversity Working Group
Friedman Brain Institute, Mount Sinai
SPARC Program Panel
National Institutes of Health
Virtual Observatory of the Cortex (VORTEX)
National Institutes of Health
Conference activity
Inaugural RCP Postdoc Summit
Scottsdale, AZ, November 19-22
BRAIN NeuroAI Workshop
Bethesda, MD, November 12-13
International Conference on Machine Learning
Vienna, Austria, July 21-27
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Annual Meeting
Victoria BC, Canada, June 11-14
McKnight Foundation Neuroscience Conference
Aspen, CO, June 7-10
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 4-5
Functional Logic of Neural Circuits Workshop
February 29
McKnight Foundation Neuroscience Conference
Aspen, CO, June 7-10
Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain Annual Meeting
New York, NY, May 6-7
Cyber Council Meeting
Healdsburg, CA, May 3-5
HMS Neurobiology Department Retreat
Harvard University, May 24
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Annual Meeting
Victoria, BC, Canada, June 11-14
Harvard Medical School AI Media Immersion
Harvard University, May 30
Raynor Cerebellum Project Big Ideas Summit
Scottsdale, AZ, April 11
Untangling Brain-wide Interactions Using Data-Constrained Modeling
LabRoots, March 6
Neuroscience Department Seminar Series
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, June 5
Virtual Seminar Series
Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at the University College London, March 30
Functional Logic of Neural Circuits: Diamonds in the Rough
National Science Foundation, February 22-24
Neural Systems Analysis Lab
Virtual Seminar, April 20
Physics Modeling of Thought
Max Planck Institute in Berlin, January 10
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 13-14
Plenary Lecture
Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience Conference, September 26-29
SfNova Lecture
Society for Neuroscience, November 11-15
Non-Human Primate Research Consortium Workshop (NHPNC)
Flatiron Institute, February 13-14
Meet-the-Expert
Society for Neuroscience, November 12
Brain Debate
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, July 9
9th Annual Gulf Coast Consortium (GCC) Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Conference
Gulf Coast Consortia, February 4
Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics (AIND) Planning Workshop on Neurotheory
Allen Institute, February 8
Institute of Neuroinformatics Seminar
University of Zurich, May 6
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience
Columbia University, November 11
Keynote– Neural Computation and Engineering Connection
University of Washington, Shanahan Foundation, and Allen Institute, May 6
Mount Sinai Morningside-West Hospital Psychiatry Grand Rounds
April 20
Society for Neuroscience Dual Perspectives Panel, Population or Single Cell Coding: What is the Language of the Brain
November 14
Optogenetic Approaches to Understanding Neural Circuits and Behavior
Gordon Research Conference, July 18
UCSF Neuroscience Formal Seminar
University of California, San Francisco, January 27
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Workshop
March 21-22
Harvard Medical School and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Kempner Institute Seminar
Harvard University, December 9
Tutorial on Recurrent Neural Networks for Neuroscience
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) virtual meeting, February 23
Special Seminar
Grossman Center, University of Chicago, April 15
Brain and Behavior Foundation Meet the Scientist Talk
February 9
Swartz Theoretical Neuroscience Series Talk
NYU, March 12
Center for Computational Brain Science (CCBS) Seminar
Brown University, March 8
Keynote– Towards Multipurpose Neural Network Models II: Model Testing and Model Fitting Workshop
Allen Brain Institute & European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience (EITN), October 10
Neuronal Ensembles Symposium
Kavli Foundation and Columbia University, May 5
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
June 3
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
August 24
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience Invited Talk
Columbia University, March 26
Special Seminar
Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, May 26
Bernstein Conference
April 14
eLife Symposium on Computational and Systems Biology
September 9
Stanford’s Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology Seminar Series
April 12
Advances in Systems & Computational Neuroscience Symposium
Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, October 5
FMI Young Investigator Seminar Series
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, December 10
Co-organizer of Learning Salon
Neurotheory.world Talk
April 8
Neuromatch Unconference Invited Talk
April 17
8th Annual Virtual Conference Brain Function: In Health & Disease
NIH, March 11
BRAINCoGs Special Seminar
Princeton University, October 7
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), Recurrent Network Models of Evidence Accumulation
March 2
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), Recurrent Network Models of Adaptive and Maladaptive State Transitions
March 3
University of Bristol Computational Neuroscience Seminar
December 4
BRAIN Initiative PI Meeting Highlight Talk
June 1
World Wide Theoretical Neuroscience Meeting Talk
November 18
Invited Speaker, Human Single Neuron Conference
Caltech, November 13
SciViz NYC Invited Speaker
December 2
Network models of evidence accumulation and behavioral variability, Computational Neuroscience Initiative & Department of Bioengineering
University of Pennsylvania, March 31
BioX, Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Department of Bioengineering joint meeting
Clark Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, March 28-29
Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) Seminar Series
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, April 7
Extramural Postdoctoral Seminars at Columbia University (EPSC)
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University in the City of New York, June 7
Department of Physiology, Biophysics & Systems Biology
Weill Cornell College of Medicine, June 21
Friedman Brain Institute
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, June 15
Simons Foundation New York Area Neuroscience Workshop
Simons Foundation, NY, every other month
Neural network models of evidence accumulation in the neocortex
Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference, New York, NY, September 6-8
Recurrent network models of sequence generation
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, January 19-21
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
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 12-16
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
Network models of sequential neural activity and timing signals
Cold Spring Harbor Labs, July 8
Network models of slow timing signals and heterogeneous dynamics
Princeton Neuroscience Institute Annual Retreat, Red Bank, NJ, May 4-5
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
Sequence generation and timing signals in neural networks
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, October 12-17
Neural Response Variability and Cortical Computation II
Banbury Center, NY, April 19
79th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology: Cognition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories
NY, May 28-June 2
Sequence Generation and Timing Signals in the Brain, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
March 3-4
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
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
Physics of Living Systems, National Science Foundation meeting
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, August 5-6
Temporal Dynamics Conference
Janelia Farm Research Campus Talk, May 13-16
Princeton Neuroscience Institute Annual Retreat
Philadelphia, PA, May 23
Generating slow timing signals from fast neural and synaptic biophysics, Temporal Dynamics Conference
Janelia Research Campus, May 13-16
20th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium
Preceding the 42nd Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, October 11-12
Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
Salt Lake City, UT, February 23-26
Sloan-Swartz Annual Meeting
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, June 27-29
Cognitive Neuroscience Conference
Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Columbus, OH, December 10-14
Characterizing Neural Responses to Structured and Naturalistic Stimuli, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting
February 27-28
Sequence generation and timing signals in neural circuits for decision-making, Society for Neuroscience Nanosymposium
October 13-17
NSF/NIH Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) meeting
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, October 9-11
Neural Response Variability and Cortical Computation I
Banbury Center, NY, April 3-6
CIRM workshop on Mean-field methods and multiscale analysis of neural populations
Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM), Marseille, France, October 3-7
Non-chaotic responses from randomly connected neural networks
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 13-17
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