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June 06, 2016
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Date:05SundayJanuary 2025Lecture
Anatomical organization of the human hippocampal system
More information Time 11:00 - 12:30Location Belfer Building
Botnar Auditorium,Lecturer Dr. Daniel Reznik Organizer Department of Brain SciencesContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Animal tract-tracing studies provided critical insights into...» Animal tract-tracing studies provided critical insights into the organizational principles of the hippocampal system, thus defining the anatomical constraints within which animal mnemonic functions operate. However, no clear framework defining the anatomical organization of the human hippocampal system exists. This gap in knowledge originates in notoriously low MRI data quality in the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) and in group-level blurring of idiosyncratic anatomy between adjacent brain regions comprising the MTL. In this talk, I will present our recent data, which overcame these longstanding challenges and allowed us to explore in detail the cortical networks associated with the human MTL, and to examine the intrinsic organization of the hippocampal-entorhinal system with unprecedented anatomical precision. Our results point to biologically meaningful and previously unknown organizational principles of the human hippocampal system. These findings facilitate the study of the evolutionary trajectory of the hippocampal connectivity and function across species, and prompt a reformulation of the neuroanatomical basis of episodic memory. -
Date:05SundayJanuary 2025Lecture
The Clore Center for Biological Physics
More information Time 13:15 - 14:30Title The Analog Computer — a "Comeback"?Location Nella and Leon Benoziyo Physics LibraryLecturer Prof. Oren Raz
lunch will be served at 12:45Organizer Clore Center for Biological PhysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about In the last decade there have been several efforts to use ph...» In the last decade there have been several efforts to use physical systems as 'physical computers': D-Wave is using super-conducting qubits as an adiabatic quantum (or non-quantum?) computer, the Israeli company Light-Solver (ex Davidson group) tries to use lasers in finding optimal solutions to optimization problems, HP is developing memristor computation, 'Natural Computing' is developing a chip that is based on thermal computin, companies like Toshiba and Fujitsu are commercializing products like Bifurcation machines' and Digital annealers', and so on... Are we indeed seeing the `comeback' of analog computers? In the talk I will discuss the physical ideas behind these machines and try to provide some intuition and understanding on their advantages and disadvantages. FOR THE LATEST UPDATES AND CONTENT ON SOFT MATTER AND BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS AT THE WEIZMANN, VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://www.biosoftweizmann.com/ -
Date:06MondayJanuary 2025Lecture
From mechanisms to evolution: Understanding genetic variation with long-read sequencing
More information Time 11:30 - 12:30Title The Department of Molecular Cell Biology and the Department of Molecular Genetics Guest SeminarLocation Wolfson
AuditoriumLecturer Dr. Regev Schweiger Organizer Department of Molecular Cell BiologyContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Patterns of genetic variation we observe today hold echoes o...» Patterns of genetic variation we observe today hold echoes of the ancestral events that shaped them. Population genetics - the study of genetic variation - offers a window into this past, providing insights across evolutionary biology, history, and human health. Advances in long-read sequencing technology, combined with the rapid decrease in sequencing costs, open new avenues for studying genetic variation. In my talk, I will focus on two such examples: First, how long-read sperm sequencing is uncovering new insights into meiotic recombination, with emphasis on non-crossover recombination. Second, algorithms based on coalescent theory for recovering evolutionary histories, with applications ranging from the deep evolutionary history of humans to detecting natural selection on genetic variants. -
Date:08WednesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
A single-cell view into the development and evolution of a complex morphology
More information Time 10:00 - 11:00Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
Botnar AuditoriumLecturer Dr. Ella Preger-Ben Noon -
Date:08WednesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Special Guest Seminar
More information Time 11:00 - 12:00Title RNA Dicing: Transforming Gene Expression from Linear Simplicity to Modular ComplexityLocation Max and Lillian Candiotty Building
AuditoriumLecturer Dr. Yuval Malka Organizer Department of Immunology and Regenerative BiologyContact -
Date:08WednesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
The Computational and Neural Basis of Cognitive Dynamics and Diversity
More information Time 11:15 - 12:45Location Belfer Building
Botnar Auditorium,Lecturer Dr. Roey Schurr Organizer Department of Brain SciencesContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Humans adapt their behavior across multiple timescales: from...» Humans adapt their behavior across multiple timescales: from rapid adjustments to changing contexts to lifelong tendencies in how they approach tasks. This variation across time and individuals poses a challenge for identifying the cognitive strategies people use and the neural processes that support them. My research combines computational modeling and neuroimaging to uncover the strategies individuals use and reveal how their dynamics are reflected in neural activity and constrained by brain structure. In this talk I will present my work on computational modeling of cognitive dynamics over weeks. I will briefly describe my work on mapping of human white matter, and my current work on the computational and neural bases of creative search. I will conclude by outlining my future research aimed at uncovering the core principles that drive both the dynamics and diversity of human cognition. -
Date:08WednesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Machine Learning and Statistics Seminar
More information Time 11:15 - 12:15Title Learning in Deep Weight Spaces Through SymmetriesLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 1 - 1 חדרLecturer Haggai Maron
Technion/NVIDIAOrganizer Department of Computer Science and Applied MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about With millions of pre-trained models now available online, ne...» With millions of pre-trained models now available online, neural weights have emerged as a new and rich data modality. This talk explores these weights as structured data objects with inherent symmetries. We will cover architectures that process weight spaces while preserving these symmetries, including our equivariant architectures for multilayer perceptron weights (ICML 2023) and Graph Metanetworks (GMN) (ICLR 2024), which extend this approach across network architectures. We'll also present our research on weight space data augmentation and network alignment (ICML 2024). Time permitting, we'll discuss recent work on learning with Low-Rank Adaptations (LoRA). This research aims to enable novel ways to analyze and modify networks, with potential applications from Implicit Neural Representation (INR) manipulation to weight pruning and model editing. -
Date:08WednesdayJanuary 2025Cultural Events
Aikya 2025 - The Unity
More information Time 18:00 - 20:00Title An Indian cultural event with classical dance, violin and guitar performances, and Bollywood dance by Weizmann members.Location Michael Sela AuditoriumOrganizer International Office BranchHomepage Contact -
Date:09ThursdayJanuary 2025Colloquia
Black Holes in Galaxies: Experimental Evidence & Cosmic Evolution
More information Time 11:15 - 12:30Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical Sciences
Weissman AuditoriumLecturer Prof. Reinhard Genzel Organizer Department of Particle Physics and AstrophysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about About a century after Albert Einstein's presentation of...» About a century after Albert Einstein's presentation of General Relativity and Karl Schwarzschild's first solution, have three experimental techniques made remarkable progress in proving the existence of the Schwarzschild/Kerr black hole solution. I will describe the impressive progress of high resolution near-infrared and radio imaging and interferometry, and of precision measurements of gravitational waves in the Galactic Center and other galaxies. I will then discuss what we now know about the cosmic co-evolution and growth of galaxies and black holes, and finish with the riddle of massive black holes detected by JWST only a few hundred Myrs after the Big Bang. -
Date:09ThursdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Geometric Functional Analysis and Probability Seminar
More information Time 13:30 - 14:30Title Physical Measures for Smooth Dynamical SystemsLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 155 - חדר 155Lecturer Snir Ben Ovadia
PSUOrganizer Department of MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Given a dynamical system which admits chaos, its possible eq...» Given a dynamical system which admits chaos, its possible equilibria are studied through the collection of its invariant measures (i.e the probability of an event does not change under time-evolution). This collection may be very large, and we often wish to single out measures of importance. In particular, physical measures are a sought-after object, as they describe an observable equilibrium. In this talk we will define what are physical measures (in a broad sense, including SRB measure), and list a few recent results and open questions regarding their existence for smooth dynamical systems. In particular, finding “testable” conditions for the existence of physical measures is an on-going and active field of research. -
Date:09ThursdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Vision and AI
More information Time 17:00 - 18:00Title Decomposing Images through Compositional Energy FunctionsLecturer Yilun Du
Google Deepmind, HarvardOrganizer Department of Computer Science and Applied MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Given a distribution of images, how can we can decompose the...» Given a distribution of images, how can we can decompose the data into a set of underlying components? In this talk, I'll present an approach that decomposes images into a underlying composable energy functions. I'll illustrate how energy functions allow us to represent both global components of an image, such as lighting as well as local components such as objects. I'll further show how we leverage pretrained vision models to infer these components. Finally, I'll illustrate how discover components can be recombined to form a variety of images substantially different than those seen at training time.
Bio: Yilun Du is an incoming assistant professor at Harvard and is currently a senior research scientist at Google Deepmind. He received has PhD and BS from MIT and was supported by a NSF graduate fellowship. -
Date:12SundayJanuary 2025Lecture
Vision and AI
More information Time 11:00 - 12:00Title Understanding Generative Models Inside Out: From Representation to DataLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 155 - חדר 155Lecturer Yanai Elazar
Allen Institute for AI and University of WashingtonOrganizer Department of Computer Science and Applied MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Generative models, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, are used by m...» Generative models, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, are used by millions of people daily for tasks ranging from programming and content creation to resume filtering. These models often create the impression of being “intelligent,” which can incentivize careless use in critical applications. While generative models are empowering, they appear to be black boxes, and their misuse can result in harmful or unlawful outcomes.
In this talk, I will present algorithms and tools for dissecting and analyzing generative models using holistic, causal, and data-centric approaches.
By applying these methods to state-of-the-art models, we can foster trust in these technologies by uncovering human-interpretable concepts that underpin their behavior, scrutinizing their extensive training data, and evaluating their learning processes.
Finally, I will reflect on how generative models have transformed the field of AI and discuss the challenges that remain in ensuring their responsible development and use. -
Date:12SundayJanuary 2025Lecture
Expansion and contraction of global desert belts during the Late Quaternary
More information Time 11:00 - 12:00Location M. Magaritz seminar roomLecturer Yonatan Goldsmith Contact Abstract Show full text abstract about Expansion and contraction of the global desert belts occur a...» Expansion and contraction of the global desert belts occur at glacial – interglacial timescales. However, the magnitude of expansion, the rainfall and evaporation changes that drive this expansion, and the wider climatic feedbacks are not well constrained. In this talk, I will present geomorphological, hydrological and isotopic data from closed-basin lakes from across the world. Closed-basin lakes have no outlet and thus their size varies as a function of water availability (P-E). They form at the desert boundaries and are sensitive, and record, hydrological changes. Using this data, I will present a spatial and temporal reconstruction of desert expansion and contraction events during the late Quaternary, and quantify the hydrological variability driving these changes. -
Date:12SundayJanuary 2025Colloquia
Emerging Quantum Pheneomena in Nonlinear Nanophotonics: Toward New Regimes of Light-Matter Interactions
More information Time 11:15 - 12:30Location Physics LibraryLecturer Dr. Eran Lustig
Stanford University, CA, USAOrganizer Department of Physics of Complex SystemsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Nanophotonics is at the forefront of research and developmen...» Nanophotonics is at the forefront of research and development in scalable quantum technologies,ranging from quantum sensing to quantum computing. Traditionally, inherently weak photon-photonand photon-atom interactions in dielectric materials pose significant challenges to fully exploiting thepotential of these platforms. However, recent advances in the fabrication of nonlinear microresonatorswith nanometric features have allowed for the enhancement of all-optical interactions,necessitating new approaches to generating, controlling, and measuring quantum light.In this seminar, I will delve into unexplored regimes at the intersection of nonlinear and quantumoptics. I will begin by showcasing our latest advancements in developing integrated microresonatorsin thin-film 4H-Silicon Carbide. This innovation enables nonlinear photonics, quantum optics, andcollective quantum emitter excitations on the same platform. Following this, I will present ourexperimental demonstration of quadrature lattices of the quantum vacuum. This work shows howpulses that spontaneously emerge in microresonators can generate lattice dynamics of the quantumvacuum and how we can exert control over these dynamics.I will then discuss the broader implications of our findings, including enhanced interactions withquantum emitters, and ultrafast nonlinear quantum nanophotonics, which enable nonlinearinteractions at the single photon level. These outcomes pave the way toward new regimes of lightmatterinteractions that are enabled on scalable photonic microchips, with transformativeimplications for fundamental physics and quantum applications. -
Date:12SundayJanuary 2025Lecture
The Clore Center for Biological Physics
More information Time 12:45 - 14:30Title Rethinking Cryo-EM, by Cryo-STEMLocation Nella and Leon Benoziyo Physics LibraryLecturer Prof. Michael Elbaum and Dr Shahar Seifer
lunch will be served at 12:45Organizer Clore Center for Biological PhysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Cryo-EM has famously revolutionized structural biology with ...» Cryo-EM has famously revolutionized structural biology with atomic-scale resolution of macromolecules in 3D. The conventional protocol is based on wide-field imaging with phase contrast introduced by defocus, followed by extensive image processing and averaging from a great number of identical objects. Key assumptions break down in the extension toward 3D imaging of thicker specimens such as cells, however, and especially for interpretation of unique features.The talk will be in two parts (by Michael and Shahar). The first will introduce an alternative imaging modality by scanning a focused probe, i.e., scanning transmission electron microscopy, or STEM, which circumvents some of these constraints. New camera technologies enable recording of the entire pattern of diffraction at every pixel, called 4D STEM. Combining the imaging with tomography, we explore new methods to exploit the wave coherence for 3D reconstruction with optimal contrast and resolution. Examples include crystals of heme, intact cells and sections of cell multilayers, and bacteriophage for the latest advances. The second part will center on the physical mechanisms of electron scattering relevant to cryo-EM. Combined with an energy loss spectrometer, a 4D STEM measurement provides atomic differential cross-sections, both elastic and inelastic. The elastic part relates to de Broglie phase delay by the average electric potential. The inelastic part is mainly due to generation of plasmons and scattering by the resulting polarization. The cross-sections provide data to test new modeling approaches, as well as to develop characterization tools for biological and other organic materials.FOR THE LATEST UPDATES AND CONTENT ON SOFT MATTER AND BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS AT THE WEIZMANN, VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://www.biosoftweizmann.com/ -
Date:13MondayJanuary 2025Lecture
Foundations of Computer Science Seminar
More information Time 11:15 - 12:15Title Aligning Machine Learning with SocietyLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 1 - 1 חדרLecturer Lee Cohen
StanfordOrganizer Department of Computer Science and Applied MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Machine Learning (ML) systems are increasingly integrated in...» Machine Learning (ML) systems are increasingly integrated into society, but challenges arise when human incentives and expectations are overlooked. In this talk, I will present frameworks for aligning ML with society, focusing on strategic classification and personalization in decision making.
Strategic classification models scenarios where individuals, aware of the deployed classifier, manipulate their observable attributes to achieve favorable outcomes. For example, individuals might apply for additional credit cards to boost their credit score just so they can qualify for a loan, even though it doesn’t impact their ability to repay the loan. The learning goal is to find a classifier robust against strategic manipulations. I will answer a fundamental question: Does learnability imply strategic learnability?
In addition, I will discuss multi-objective Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), which involve multiple, potentially conflicting objectives. In classic reinforcement learning and MDPs, policies are evaluated with scalar reward functions, implying that every optimal policy is optimal for all users. However, real-world scenarios involve multiple, sometimes conflicting objectives, necessitating personalized solutions. I will present an MDP framework that accommodates different user preferences over objectives, where preferences are learned via policy comparisons, and the goal is to efficiently compute a near-optimal policy for a given user. -
Date:13MondayJanuary 2025Lecture
Midrasha on Groups Seminar
More information Time 11:15 - 13:00Title Cost, L²-Betti numbers, and free groups: distinguishing free groups with von-Neumann algebrasLocation Elaine and Bram Goldsmith Building for Mathematics and Computer Sciences
Room 208 - חדר 208Lecturer Michael Glasner
WeizmannOrganizer Department of MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about This is the first of two talks on cost, L²-Betti numbers, an...» This is the first of two talks on cost, L²-Betti numbers, and free groups. In this talk, I will show that two free ergodic p.m.p. actions of the free groups F_n and F_m are not orbit equivalent. This will be achieved by utilizing the concept of the cost of the orbit equivalence relation and related von-Neumann algebras. The content will primarily be based on Sections 4 and 5 of Ioana’s paper. For more details and the exact reference, click here. -
Date:13MondayJanuary 2025Lecture
Midrasha on Groups Seminar
More information Time 14:15 - 16:00Title Probabilistic laws on groupsLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 1 - 1 חדרLecturer Guy Blachar
WeizmannOrganizer Department of MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Suppose a finite group satisfies the following property: If ...» Suppose a finite group satisfies the following property: If you take two random elements, then with probability bigger than 5/8 they commute. Then this group is commutative. Starting from this well-known result, it is natural to ask: Do similar results hold for other laws (p-groups, nilpotent groups...)? Are there analogous results for infinite groups? Are there phenomena specific to the infinite setup? We will survey known and new results in this area. New results are joint with Gideon Amir, Maria Gerasimova and Gady Kozma. -
Date:14TuesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Designing fully computational and efficient de novo enzymes: insights into catalysis and foldability
More information Time 14:00 - 15:00Location Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallLecturer Dina Listov Organizer Department of Chemical and Structural Biology -
Date:15WednesdayJanuary 2025Lecture
Machine Learning and Statistics Seminar
More information Time 11:15 - 12:15Title Algebraic Approaches and Deep Neural Models for 3D Scene Reconstruction and Camera Pose Estimation in Static and Dynamic EnvironmentsLocation Jacob Ziskind Building
Room 1 - 1 חדרLecturer Yoni Kasten
Nvidia ResearchOrganizer Department of Computer Science and Applied MathematicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about This talk will explore advances in 3D scene reconstruction, ...» This talk will explore advances in 3D scene reconstruction, focusing on approaches to estimate camera poses and scene structures in challenging multiview and dynamic content scenarios. First, I will outline foundational aspects of my earlier work, where we characterized the algebraic structure of fundamental and essential matrices in multiview settings and developed deep learning methods for joint recovery of camera parameters and sparse 3D scene structures. The main part of the talk introduces TracksTo4D (NeurIPS 2024), a novel, efficient method for reconstructing dynamic 3D structures and camera motion from casual videos. TracksTo4D leverages a dedicated encoder, trained in an unsupervised way on a dataset of casual videos, that uses 2D point tracks as input to infer dynamic 3D structures and camera motion. Our architecture takes into account symmetries in the problem, enforces the reconstruction to be of low rank, and models both static and dynamic scene components. Our model demonstrates strong generalization to unseen videos from new categories, achieving accurate 3D reconstruction and camera localization through a single feed-forward pass while drastically reducing running times.
Bio:
Yoni Kasten is a senior research scientist at NVIDIA Research in Tel Aviv, on Prof. Gal Chechik’s team. His research in 3D computer vision focuses on algebraic characterizations of multi-camera systems and deep neural models for surface reconstruction, dynamic scene modeling, and 4D scene reconstruction. Yoni earned his PhD from the Weizmann Institute, where his work on structure from motion estimation using algebraic characterizations, supervised by Prof. Ronen Basri, received the John F. Kennedy Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Research. He also completed his M.Sc. in Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Shmuel Peleg and Prof. Michael Werman.