Behavioural Neuroscience

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
• Professor: Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottowa
• Co-Director: Center for Neural Dynamics, University of Ottowa

EDUCATION:
Leonard Maler received his undergraduate education at McGill University and his Graduate training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. His Doctoral Fellowship was the first analysis of the neural pathways underlying the electric sense. He did Postdoctoral Fellowships with Dr Ted Bullock (University of California, San Diego) and at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Professor Creutzfeldt’s department. During this period he participated in developing the electric fish model of sensory processing. He joined the University of Ottawa in 1976 and was recently made a Distinguished Professor.

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
Distinguished University Professor Award (2004-2005)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dr Maler’s research attempts to link the dynamics of cellular processes and the structural organization of neural networks so as to understand the emergent properties of the network. Specifically he is interested in how feedback neural architectures combined with dynamic neuronal connections (synapses) can optimize sensory processing.

Dr Maler uses electric fish as a model system because its relatively simple nervous system permits rigorous application of theoretical methods to experimental data.