Haim Sompolinsky Lab

ELSC Members

Haim Sompolinsky

Professor Emeritus

Phone: +972-54-8820754
Address: The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences
The Suzanne and Charles Goodman Brain Sciences Building,
Level 2, Room 1201, Edmond J. Safra Campus,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190401
William N. Skirball Chair in Neurophysics, Emeritus

Sompolinsky’s research goal is to uncover the fundamental principles of the organization, the dynamics and the function of the brain, viewing the brain through multiscale lenses, spanning the molecular, the cellular, and the circuit levels. To achieve this goal, Sompolinsky has developed new theoretical approaches to computational neuroscience based on the principles and methods of statistical physics, and physics of dynamical and stochastic systems. This new field, Neurophysics, builds in part on Sompolinsky’s earlier work on critical phenomena, random systems, spin glasses, and chaos. His research areas cover theoretical and computational investigations of cortical dynamics, sensory processing, motor control, neuronal population coding, long and short-term memory, and neural learning. The highlights of his research include theories and models of local cortical circuits, visual cortex, associative memory, statistical mechanics of learning, chaos and excitation-inhibition balance in neuronal networks, principles of neural population codes, statistical mechanics of compressed sensing and sparse coding in neuronal systems, and the Tempotron model of spike time based neural learning. He also studies the neuronal mechanisms of volition and the impact of physics and neuroscience on the foundations of human freedom and agency.

Lectures

Abeer Karmi Hallak
Abeer Karmi Hallak, Ph.D.
Lab Manager
Imri_Lifshitz
Imri Lifshitz
Ph.D. Student
Shai_Tishby
Shai Tishby
Ph.D. Student
YoavRubinstein
Yoav Rubinstein
Ph.D. Student
Maayan_Moshkovitz
Maayan Moshkovitz
PhD Student
Netta Livneh
Netta Livneh
PhD Student
ADMIN PHOTO
Asia Prag
MSc Student
ADMIN PHOTO
Or Nathan
Undergraduate Student
unnamed
Hila Topaz
Undergraduate Student
Shai Tishby Tamari, Yoav Rubinstein, Netta Livneh, Maayan Moshkovitz, Abeer Karmi, Lilach Avitan

Nature Communications (2026)

Imri Lifshitz, Asia Prag, Netta Livneh, Maayan Moshkovitz, Abeer Karmi, Lilach Avitan

Nature Communications (2026)

Y Rubinstein, M Moshkovitz, I Ottenheimer, S Shapira, S Tiomkin, L Avitan

iScience (2025)

Suárez, Rodrigo, Tobias Bluett, Michael H. McCullough, Lilach Avitan, Dylan A. Black, Annalisa Paolino, Laura R. Fenlon, Geoffrey J. Goodhill, and Linda J. Richards.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.  (2023)

Zhu, Shuyu I., Michael H. McCullough, Zac Pujic, Jordan Sibberas, Biao Sun, Thomas Darveniza, Bianca Bucknall, Lilach Avitan, and Geoffrey J. Goodhill

Journal of Neuroscience (2023)

Triplett MA, Pujic Z, Sun B, Avitan L, Goodhill GJ.

PLoS Comput Biol. (2020)

Avitan L, Pujic Z, Mölter J, Zhu S, Sun B, Goodhill GJ

Elife, 19;10:e61942 (2021)

Marcus A. Triplett , Lilach Avitan , and Geoffrey J. Goodhill

Computational Biology (2020)

Avitan, L., Pujic, Z., Molter, J., Sun, B., Myhre,A.E., Goodhill, G.J.

Current Biology (2020)

Avitan L. and Goodhill G.J.

Trends in Neurosciences (2018)

Mölter, J., Avitan, L. & Goodhill, G.

BMC Biol (2018)

Triplett, M., Avitan, L. and Goodhill, G.J.

PLoS Computational Biology, 14(9):e1006421 (2018)

Marachlian, E., Avitan, L., Goodhill, G.J., and Sumbre, G.

Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 12, 46 (2018)

Avitan L., Pujic Z., Mölter J., Sun B., Van De Poll1 M., Teng H.,Amor R., Scott E.K., and Goodhill G.J.

Current Biology, Volume 27, Issue 16, Pages 2407-2419.e4 (2017)

Avitan, L., Pujic Z., Hughes J.N., Scott E.K. and Goodhill J.G.

Journal of Neuroscience, 36(19):5385–5396 (2016)

Suarez, R., Fenlon, L., Marek, R., Avitan, L., Sah, P., Goodhill, G.J. and Richards, L.J.

Neuron, Volume 82, Issue 6, Pages 1289-1298 (2014)

Avitan L., Teicher M., and Abeles M.

Journal of Neurophysiology, 102: 3046-3059 (2009)

Avitan L., Teicher M., and Abeles M.

Biological Cybernetics, 98(1):49-59 (2008)

We are looking for bright and highly motivated doctoral and postdoctoral students.

Lilach Avitan

Assistant Professor

Phone: +972-2-5494829
Address: The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences
The Suzanne and Charles Goodman Brain Sciences Building,
Level 2, Room 1203, Edmond J. Safra Campus,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190401

“Working memory”