EDUCATION     

2000                         Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

                                 Ph.D., Physics

                                 Advisors: Dr. Laurence Abbott (Brandeis University)

                                                   Dr. Charles Marcus

1989 - 1993              Stanford University, Stanford, CA

                                 B.S., Physics, with honors and distinction. 

         

RESEARCH/TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Fall 2003-                Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Program in Neuroscience,

                                 Wellesley College         

2000-present            Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and              

                                 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  Supervisor: Dr. Sebastian Seung.

Research area:  Computational neuroscience.  Research in collaboration with Dr. David Tank focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the integration of velocity-coded eye movement commands to eye position signals by the oculomotor neural integrator.

1994 - 2000              Graduate Research and Teaching Fellow, Harvard University and

                                 Brandeis University.

Research focused on the roles of activity-dependent synaptic and neuronal processes in network computations.

1999                         Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Designed and taught a course entitled “Computational Neuroscience for Physicists” during MIT’s January IAP (independent activities period) term.

 

POSITIONS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

w      Board of directors, Computational Neuroscience Organization, 2003-present.

w Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, 1998

w    Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University, 1992.  Elected in junior year.       

w    David S. Levine Award, Stanford University, 1992

  Prize given after junior year to outstanding student in physics.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Full-length Publications:

w      M.S. Goldman, S.B. Nelson, L.F. Abbott, Decorrelation of spike trains by synaptic depression, Neurocomputing 26-27:147-153 (1999).

w      M.S. Goldman, J. Golowasch, E. Marder, L.F. Abbott, Dependence of firing pattern on intrinsic ionic conductances: sensitive and insensitive combinations, Neurocomputing 32-33:141-146 (2000).

w      M.S. Goldman, Computational implications of activity-dependent neuronal processes, Harvard Univ. Ph.D. thesis (2000).

w      M.S. Goldman, J. Golowasch, E. Marder, L.F. Abbott, Global structure, robustness, and modulation of neuronal models, J. Neurosci. 21:5229-5238 (2001).

w      M.S. Goldman, P. Maldonado, L.F. Abbott, Redundancy reduction and sustained firing with stochastic depressing synapses, J. Neurosci. 22:584-591 (2002).

w      J. Golowasch, M.S. Goldman, L.F. Abbott, E. Marder, Failure of averaging in the construction of a conductance‑based neuron model, J. Neurophys. 87:1129-1131 (2002).

w      M.S. Goldman, C.R.S. Kaneko, G. Major, E. Aksay, D.W. Tank, H.S. Seung, Linear regression of eye velocity on eye position and head velocity suggests a common oculomotor neural integrator, J. Neurophys. 88:659-665 (2002).

w      E. Aksay, G. Major, M.S. Goldman, R. Baker, H.S. Seung, D.W. Tank, History dependence of rate covariation between neurons during persistent activity in an oculomotor integrator, Cereb. Cortex. 13:1173-1184 (2003).

w      M.S. Goldman, J.H. Levine, G. Major, D.W. Tank, H.S. Seung, Robust persistent neural activity in a model integrator with multiple hysteretic dendrites per neuron, Cereb. Cortex. 13:1185-1195 (2003).

w      M.S. Goldman, Enhancement of information transmission efficiency with unreliable synapses, Neural Comput. 16:1137-1162 (2004).

 

Abstracts:

w      M.S. Goldman, K. Sugino, S.B. Nelson, L.F. Abbott, Decorrelation of spike trains by synaptic depression, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 24:2095 (1998).

w      M.S. Goldman, L.F. Abbott, Synapses as stochastic filters, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 44:1493 (1999).

w      M.S. Goldman, J. Golowasch, L.F. Abbott, E. Marder, Sensitivity of intrinsic firing on conductance densities, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 25:1645 (1999).

w      M.S. Goldman, J. Golowasch, E. Marder, L.F. Abbott, Inadequacy of averaged or uncorrelated measurements in the construction of conductance-based neuronal models, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 26:1999 (2000).

w      M.S. Goldman, C.R.S. Kaneko, D.W. Tank, G. Major, R.G. Baker, H.S. Seung, Do the VOR and saccades share a common neural integrator?, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 27: 405.16 (2001).

w      M.S. Goldman, J.H. Levine, G. Major, E. Aksay, D.W. Tank, H.S. Seung, Dendritic bistability increases the robustness of persistent neural activity in a model oculomotor neural integrator, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 28:266.14 (2002).

w      M.S. Goldman, D.A. Butts, The best encoded stimuli in a sensory neuron’s tuning curve are determined by the amount of neuronal variability, Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 29:485.22 (2003).