Nachum Ulanovsky

Nachum Ulanovsky is a Professor of Neuroscience and Head of the Center for Learning, Memory & Cognition at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is an elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He studies the hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex, and investigates the neural codes that underlie complex natural behaviors such as navigation and sociality. His group developed novel wireless-electrophysiology devices, which enabled the discovery of 3D place-cells, 3D head-direction cells, and 3D grid cells in flying bats; and social place-cells – neurons which represent the identities, sex, hierarchy, and social affiliation of other individuals, in a social group. He studies bats flying in very large environments indoors, as well as outdoors – during navigation and social interactions. He seeks to create an ecological approach to neuroscience – a "Natural Neuroscience" approach for studying the neural basis of behavior and cognition in animals and humans.