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Daniel A. Wagenaar, PhD |
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Daniel A. Wagenaar, PhD |
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Daniel Wagenaar
daw@caltech.edu / +1 (626) 395-2577
Daniel Wagenaar obtained his PhD in Physics from Caltech studying the networks formed by cultures of rat cortical neurons grown on multi-electrode arrays working with Jerry Pine and Steve Potter (at Georgia Tech). Before that, he studied theoretical physics as an undergraduate student at the University of Amsterdam and information theory and neural networks as a Master’s student in the Math Department of King’s College, London. (More...)
After his PhD, Dr Wagenaar did a postdoc in the lab of Bill Kristan at UCSD, where he combined electrophysiology and voltage-sensitive dye imaging to study motor behavior in the medicinal leech, and in 2008, he started his own research group at Caltech as a Broad Senior Research Fellow where he started his work on crossmodal sensory integration. (More...)
In August 2013, Dr Wagenaar will join the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor.
Andrew Krause
andrewk@caltech.edu
Cynthia Harley,
postdoc, 2009–2012
Cynthia ‘Cindy’ Harley is interested in how information from sensory systems translates into changes in motor behavior. She earned her PhD studying the involvement of the central complex, a region of the insect brain thought to be involved in sensory-motor integration, in obstacle negotiation behaviors working in the lab of Roy Ritzmann in the Biology Department at Case Western Reserve University. Working in my lab, she has discovered that leeches use visual and mechanical cues differentially, and that this difference is under developmental control. She also discovered that sensory information is used differently in crawling leeches than in swimming leeches.
After her work in my lab, Cindy went on to do a second postdoc in the lab of Karen Mesce at the University of Minnesota where she is currently tracing the flow of visual information from the leech’s head eyes into the brain.
John Nagarah,
postdoc, 2009–2012
John earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from UCLA and Caltech in 2009 under Prof. James R. Heath. For his thesis, he developed a batch fabrication process to create high performance planar patch-clamp wafers in quartz/glass and integrated them with multilayer PDMS microfluidic devices. In my lab, John Nagarah developed planar electrode technologies in quartz to simultaneously immobilize neural tissue, record extracellular signals, and image voltage sensitive dyes stained in neurons.
After his work in my lab, John took his expertise in microfabrication to Lam Research in Fremont, CA.
Pieter Laurens Baljon, visitor, 2010, 2011, 2012
Pieter Laurens Baljon graduated from the Neuroengineering group of Prof. Martinoia at the University of Genova, Italy. As a visitor to our lab in 2010, he worked on interfacing the leech ganglion with a 60-channel microelectrode array. Performing spike sorting and source separation on these recordings, one can follow a large number of cells at high temporal resolution, and for extended periods. With a simultaneous recording using voltage-sensitive dyes it becomes possible to link the electrophysiological signal to individual cells and their function. A year later (after accepting a postdoctoral position at the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and again in 2012, he returned to our lab to study how a neural reflex pathway resolves sensory conflicts.
Matthew Rossi, high school student, 2011–2012
Matthew Rossi’s focus was on elucidating during which phases of prey localization behavior leeches actually take in sensory cues.
Javier Cienfuegos, high school student, 2010–2011
Javier Cienfuegos worked on prey localization experiments with Cindy Harley. We are proud to announce that he has since matriculated as an undergraduate student at Yale.
| Maintained by Daniel Wagenaar. Last modified: May 2012. |
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