Dr. Aurel Lazar

Biography

Aurel Lazar is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, where he has been a faculty member since 1980. He earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 1980. His current research focuses on the computational modeling of neural circuits, particularly the reverse engineering of the fruit fly brain. Lazar has initiated several projects, including Neurokernel, an open-source platform for emulating the fruit fly brain, and NeuroArch, a database for querying and executing brain circuits. His work, part of the Fruit Fly Brain Observatory, aims to create an open platform for biological validation of models. He is also involved in the development of NeuroNLP and NeuroGFX applications, which provide intuitive tools for researchers to analyze neural circuit models. Additionally, Lazar has pioneered theoretical methods in neural encoding and decoding, contributing significantly to the field of neuroengineering and neuromorphic computing. He has held leadership positions such as Co-Director of the Center for Neural Engineering and Computation and has received several accolades, including being named a Fellow of the IEEE Society of Neuroscience.

Research Interests

Experience