June 30 th , 2019
Sadly, Dr. Armin Fuchs passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning after valiantly struggling to overcome cancer which ultimately, and suddenly, took his life this weekend. Dr. Fuchs was Professor in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and Department of Physics. His passing is a great loss for both programs. Those who knew him well knew him to be a gentleman, a good friend and a very talented scientist and teacher will miss him dearly.
Armin completed his PhD work with Professor Dr. Herman Haken, the well-known father of Laser Theory, at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Synergetics, at the University of Stuttgart. From 1991 -1994, Armin was a post-doctoral fellow in the Center working with Professor J.A. Scott Kelso in applying his knowledge in Synergetics and Dynamical Systems to bring new insight to how the brain might function. He returned to Stuttgart as a faculty member for one year before joining the Center and the Physics Department in 1995 as Assistant Professor rising through the ranks to Full Professor in 2017. Over the past 25 years, Armin has taught hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students who considered him an outstanding teacher. He was indeed a gifted teacher who could take a student with little mathematical background and successfully introduce them to mathematical concepts and nonlinear dynamics. His approach was exemplified in his textbook "Nonlinear Dynamics in Complex Systems," which has already become a classic in the field. His work with our graduate students helped shape the minds and careers of scientists now employed around the world who hold prominent positions in academia and the private sector. With his students and collaborators, Armin conducted seminal research in the application of the concepts of synergetics and the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems to the behavioral sciences, biology and medicine, especially, the macroscopic modeling of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human EEG and MEG. Dr. Armin Fuchs will indeed be missed, although his legacy lives on in his writings, his work and his students. Our condolences and thoughts are with his family and his friends.
Memorial Service: Tuesday July 9th, 2019 11:00 A.M. Glick Family Funeral Home 3600 N Federal Hwy Boca Raton, FL 33431
Research in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences addresses fundamental questions in neuroscience from the perspective of complex systems. It deals with questions about how genes work together in networks to form and shape a neuron; about how neurons interact to form complex, emergent, patterns of activity; about how normal brain function is lost when the brain degenerates; about how our cognition is both shaped by and shapes our neural pathways; about how neurons and neuronal circuits support learning and memory; about how visual perception emerges from sensory inputs; about how we control cognition and behavior; and about how coordinated neural activity in brain networks allows us to perform various activities, and to perceive, attend to, and think about the world around us. Research in the Center uses a variety of different approaches, including, but not limited to, those from robotics and machine perception, gene therapy, noninvasive human neuroimaging, neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, time series analysis, network theory, and nonlinear dynamics.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is excited to announce that recent graduate Dr Mengsen Zhang has earned a post doctoral position in the Brain Dynamics Lab at Stanford University. Dr Zhang will be working with the team of Dr Mannish Saggar and continue to advance the field of brain dynamics at one of the best known institutions of higher education in the country. We are confident she will make herself an asset there as she has done here at FAU.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences happily announces that recent graduate Dr Michael Mannino has earned a post doctoral position at University of Miami. We are proud to say that Dr Mannino will continue to learn and educate at one of Florida's best known institutions of higher education. We hope he will be as happy there as he was here at FAU.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is proud to announce that recent graduate Dr Tatiana Vienna has earned a prestigious post doctoral position at Florida international University. Out of more than 100 applicants, Dr Vienna was one of a select few to earn this distinguished position. We wish her continued success in all future endeavors. More details here.
PhD student Michael Mannino has successfully defended his doctoral dissertation: On the Nature of Neural Causality in Large Scale Brain Networks: Foundations, Modeling, and Non-linear Neurodynamics. Dr Mannino has now completed his doctorate in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. See the Abstract here.
PhD student Tatiana Viena has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation: Behavioral and Electrophysiological properties of Nucleus Reuniens: Role in Arousal, Spatial Navigation, and Cognitive Processes. Dr Vienna has now completed her doctorate in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. See the Abstract here.
PhD student Mengsen Zhang has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation: The Coordination Dynamics of Multiple Agents. Dr Zhang has now completed her doctorate in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. See the Abstract here.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is proud to announce that Center Graduate Dr Reyna Gordon has received the prestigious New Innovator Award from the NIH. This award comes with $2.3 Million in funding for her research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read all about it here .
PhD student Tatiana Viena has been published as first author for her research into the effects of nucleus reuniens inactivation on memory and behavioral flexibility in rats. Details here. This article had the honor of having one of its images selected for the cover of the April 2018 issue of Hippocampus. See the image here.
PhD student Mengsen Zhang will present a talk entitled "Linking the many and the few: an experimental-theoretical analysis of multiagent coordination" at the Ninth International Conference on Complex Systems to be held July 22-27, 2018 in Cambridge, Mass.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences in proud to announce that our recent Doctoral graduate -- Dr Jigar Modi (MD, PhD) -- has been awarded a $100,000 Florida Department of Health postdoctoral fellowship grant entitled "Neuroprotection of Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) Gene Therapy in Alzheimer's Disease". This grant will help support his ongoing research. More information here!
Dr Summer Sheremata has a new research article published in the Journal of Neuroscience: Sheremata, S. L., Somers, D. C., & Shomstein, S. (2018). Visual Short-Term Memory Activity in Parietal Lobe Reflects Cognitive Processes beyond Attentional Selection. The Journal of Neuroscience, 38, 1511–1519.
Gary Perry, Ph.D, Director and Professor
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The Interdisciplinary PhD in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is an option also accessible by the FAU Brain Institute's Graduate Training Program in Neuroscience.
