Mackenzie Weygandt Mathis, PhD

Publications:
Google Scholar

Biography:

Prof. Mackenzie W. Mathis is the Bertarelli Foundation Chair of Integrative Neuroscience and an Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). Following the award of her PhD at Harvard University in 2017 with Prof. Naoshige Uchida, she was awarded the prestigious Rowland Fellowship at Harvard to start her independent laboratory (2017-2020). Before starting her group, she worked with Prof. Matthias Bethge at the University of Tübingen in the summer of 2017 with the support of the Women & the Brain Project ALS Fellowship. She is an ELLIS Scholar, Vallee Scholar, a former NSF Graduate Fellow, and her work has been featured in the news at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Nature, and The Atlantic. She was awarded the FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize 2022, the Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientist Prize in 2023, and the Swiss Science Prize Latsis 2024.

Her lab works on mechanisms underlying adaptive behavior in intelligent systems. Specifically, the laboratory combines machine learning, computer vision, and experimental work in rodents with the combined goal of understanding the neural basis of adaptive motor control.

In the News:

RJF position, Peralta Prize, NSF Fellowship, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Nature (DLC), Nature, Nature Methods Profile, Nature Profile

Mini CV:

• 2020 - present: Tenure-track Assistant Professor, EPFL & Bertarelli Foundation Chair of Integrative Neuroscience

• 2017 - 2020: Rowland Fellow at Harvard University (faculty)

• 2017: Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Dr. Matthias Bethge at the University of Tübingen (April - August 2017)

• 2012 - 2017: PhD studies at Harvard University under the direction of Prof. Naoshige Uchida.

• 2007 - 2012: pre-graduate work (research tech) at Columbia University on stem cell derived motor neurons under the direction of Prof. Christopher Henderson & Hynek Wichterle.

Editorial Service:

• Current Opinion in Neurobiology Editorial Board 2021 - present

• BRE eLife Editor 2020-2024

• Science Advances Reviewing Editor 2021 -2023

Current External Service:

• ‘17 - Board Member Science Ambassador Scholarship

• ‘21 - EPFL Campus Biotech Scientific Committee

• ‘20 - U24 OpenEphys Scientific Advisor

• ‘20 - ‘24 U24 DataJoint Scientific Advisor

• ‘20 - EPFL WISH Bureau Member

• ‘21 - Allen Institute OpenScope External Steering Committee

• ‘21 AMLD Board Member

• ‘21 - Center for Imaging EPFL Scientific Steering Committee

• ‘21-’23 NEWLAB Advisor Council Member

• ‘22 - ‘25 Wellcome Trust Technology Advisor

• ‘22 - Scientific Advisory Board of the BCCN Berlin

• ‘22 - ‘23 Scientific Advisory Board, MindScope Allen Institute