Timothy J Gawne

I grew up in Boston, MA, and got an electrical engineering degree from M.I.T. I then worked at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for a time, then got my PhD in Physiology, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the NIH. Since 1996 I have been on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), in the Department of Optometry and Vision Science. My general research interest is in the nature of the neural code, and the physical basis of human thought. Currently I am using magneto-encephalography (MEG) to study brain dynamics in people with schizophrenia and epilepsy. I am also investigating the nature of the visual cues that the neural retina uses to fine-tune its growth during childhood and adolescence - this latter bears on the issue of why more and more people are becoming nearsighted. I live with my wife Adrienne and a greyhoud/border collie "lurcher" mix called "Lexi." I have a son who works as an engineer building automated warehouses, and a daughter in graduate school. My primary hobby is writing science fiction, at which endeavor I am ably assisted by my genius editor brother (and noted historian), Jonathan Gawne. My emergency backup hobbies are carpentry, tinkering with electronics, iconoclastic politics, and making plants die.