Biophysics and Neuroscience

Gašper Tkačik is a theoretical physicist who studies information processing in living systems. He uses tools from statistical physics of disordered systems and from information theory to investigate biological systems such as networks of neurons or genes. The unifying hypothesis driving his research has been that information processing networks have evolved or adapted to maximize the information transmitted from their inputs to the outputs, given the biophysical noise and resource constraints. He works closely with experimentalists and analyzes data sets that record simultaneously the behavior of many network components. Results of his work gave insight into the principles of genetic regulation in early morphogenesis of Drosophila and of information coding in retinal ganglion cells. In the future, he plans to expand his activities to study collective behavior and cellular self-organization.

Contact
Gašper Tkačik
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria)
Am Campus 1
A – 3400 Klosterneuburg

Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-4501
E-mail: gasper.tkacik@remove-this.ist.ac.at

CV and publication list

Gašper Tkačik's website

Assistant
Astrid Bonventre-Darthe
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-1194
E-mail: astrid.bonventre-darthe@remove-this.ist.ac.at

Team

    • Anna Andersson, Postdoc
    • Katarina Bodova, Postdoc
    • Vicente Botella Soler, Postdoc
    • Matthew Chalk, Postdoc
    • Daniele De Martino, Postdoc
    • Mantas Gabrielaitis, Postdoc
    • Sarah Anhala Cepeda Humerez, PhD Student
    • Jan Humplik, PhD Student
    • Jakob Rueß, Postdoc
    • Cristina Savin, Postdoc
    • Thomas Sokolowski, Postdoc

      Current Projects

      • Visual encoding in the retina
      • Genetic regulation during early embryogenesis
      • Collective dynamics in groups of organisms

      Selected Publications

      • Dubuis JO, Tkačik G,Wieschaus EF, Gregor T, Bialek W. 2013. Postitional information in bits. PNAS 110(41): 16301-16308.
      • Tkačik G, Granot-Atedgi E, Segev R, Schneidman E. 2013. Retinal metric: a stimulus distance measure derived from population neural responses. Physical Review Letter 110(5): 058194.
      • Tkačik G, Prentice JS, Victor JD, Balasubramanian V. 2010. Local
        statistics in natural scenes predict the saliency of synthetic textures.
        Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107: 18149–18154.

      Career

      2017 Professor, IST Austria
      2011-2016 Assistant Professor, IST Austria
      2008–2010 Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania
      2007 Postdoc, Princeton University
      2007 PhD, Princeton University

      Selected Distinctions

      2012 HFSP Grant
      2006 Charlotte E Procter Honorific Fellowship, Princeton University
      2003 Burroughs-Wellcome Fellowship, Princeton University
      2002 Golden sign of the University of Ljubljana

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