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   Brief Profile
Dr. Henry Markram
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
henry.markram@epfl.ch
Assistant Chief Editor - Frontiers in Neuroscience
Associate Editor - Frontiers in Neurogenomics
Associate Editor - Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience
Detailed Profile








Brief Biography
Henry Markram is the Founder and Co-Director of the Brain Mind Institute (BMI) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Director of the Blue Brain Project. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science where he discovered an NMDA receptor link between acetylcholine and memory mechanisms. At the Max Planck Institute he discovered calcium transients in dendrites evoked by sub-threshold activity and by single action potentials propagating back into dendrites. He also began studying the connectivity between neocortical neurons. Markram discovered Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP) by altering the precise millisecond relative timing of single pre- and post-synaptic action potentials, which revealed a highly precise learning mechanism operating between neurons. He moved back to the Weizmann Institute where he started his systematic reverse engineering of the neocortical microcircuitry. He discovered a number of key principles of neural microcircuit design and a novel view of synaptic learning called redistribution of synaptic efficacy (RSE). Based on the emergent dynamics of the neocortical microcircuit he and Wolfgang Maass developed the theory of "Liquid Computing" to explain computing in high entropy states. In 2002, he moved to the EPFL as full professor and founder/director of the Brain Mind Institute. At the EPFL he discovered Long-Term Microcircuit Plasticity (LTMP) and a number of cellular, synaptic and connectivity principles in the neocortical microcircuitry. At the BMI, Markram developed state of art technologies such as 12 patch-clamp recording to obtain a detailed blueprint of the neocortical column. He launched the Blue Brain Project with the support of IBM in 2005 to build a facility for Simulation-Based Research. He has used this facility to reconstruct a detailed computer model of the neocortical column and is expanding the BBP to simulate at a higher resolution (molecular level) and a larger scale (whole brain) of mammals with an eventual target of building a model of the Human brain. Markram has received numerous awards and published over 100 papers.

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