Wallach - פקולטה לביולוגיה Biology Faculty

Education/ Resume:

2017-2023 Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University, New-York, USA. Advisor: Nate Sawtell
2014-2017 Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, Primary Advisor: Leonard Maler, Co-Advisor: André Longtin
2011-2014 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, Advisor: Ehud Ahissar
2012-2005 Direct track Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, Primary Advisor: Shimon Marom,Co-Advisor: Ron Meir
1999-2003 B.Sc., Electrical Engineering (summa cum laude)– Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba, Israel

Research Summary

Research in the Wallach lab aims at studying how animals use their motor and sensory systems to generate internal brain models of their environment, and how these internal models guide the animal’s autonomous behavior. The lab uses underwater brain recordings in freely swimming weakly electric fish.

Awards

2016 Young Investigator Award, International Society for Neuroethology

2011-2013 Dean’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Feinberg Graduate School, Weizmann Institute of Science

2007 Miriam and Aaron Gutwirth Memorial Fellowship, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

2007 Excellence in Teaching Award, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

2006 Sherman Interdisciplinary Fellowship, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

2003 Wolf Foundation Scholarship, Ben-Gurion University

2000-2002 Dean’s Award, Faculty of Engineering, Ben-Gurion University

1999-2003 Suzan Zlotowski Tuition Scholarship, Ben-Gurion University

Key Publications

Wallach A, Sawtell NB, An internal model for canceling self-generated sensory input in freely behaving electric fish, Neuron, June 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2023.05.019

Wallach A, Longtin A and Maler L, Mixed selectivity coding of sensory and motor social signals in the thalamus of a weakly electric fish, Current Biology, January 2022, 32 (1), 51-63. e3. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)01423-8

Wallach A, Harvey-Girard E, Jun JJ, Longtin A and Maler L, A novel time-stamp mechanism transforms egocentric encounters into an allocentric spatial representation, November 2018, eLife 2018;7:e36769. https://elifesciences.org/articles/36769

Recent Publications:

Wallach A, Sawtell NB, An internal model for canceling self-generated sensory input in freely behaving electric fish, Neuron, June 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2023.05.019

Wallach A, Longtin A and Maler L, Mixed selectivity coding of sensory and motor social signals in the thalamus of a weakly electric fish, Current Biology, January 2022, 32 (1), 51-63. e3. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)01423-8

Engelmann J*, Wallach A* and Maler L*, Linking active sensing and spatial learning in weakly electric fish, Current Opinion in Neurobiology, December 2021, 71, 1-10.

Ebert C, Bagdasarian K, Haidarliu S, Ahissar E, and Wallach A, Interactions of whisking and touch signals in the rat brainstem, Journal of Neuroscience, June 2021, 41 (22), 4826-4839. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/41/22/4826.full

Wallach A*, Deutsch D*, Oram T* and Ahissar E, Predictive whisker kinematics reveal context-dependent sensorimotor strategies, PLOS Biology, May 2020, 18(5). https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000571

Wallach A, Harvey-Girard E, Jun JJ, Longtin A and Maler L, A novel time-stamp mechanism transforms egocentric encounters into an allocentric spatial representation, November 2018, eLife 2018;7:e36769. https://elifesciences.org/articles/36769

Wallach A, Bagdasarian K and Ehissar E, On-going computation of whisking phase by mechanoreceptors. Nature Neuroscience, March 2016, Volume 19, Issue 3, p.487-493. https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4221

Open Positions

We are always looking for highly motivated postdocs and graduate students to join us.

Avner Wallach