Dr. Matthew Ricci

Matthew Ricci works at the intersection of machine learning and dynamical systems, with applications to neuroscience, genetics and other biological domains. He received his PhD from Brown University, where he studied computational neuroscience and machine learning. In his capacity as a Zuckerman fellow, Dr. Ricci is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With his research group, he draws on methods from mathematics and physics to build new statistical tools for controlling and reconstructing the dynamics of biological networks. Current questions include: Can we predict the onset of cancer by examining the interactions between cells? Can we inhibit the spread of infectious diseases between cities? Can we understand brain function by reconstructing the interactions among neurons? Dr. Ricci is also intrigued by the converse prospect of improving machine learning methods by taking inspiration from dynamical systems. He has collaborated with researchers across sciences, from cognitive scientists to physicists, to seek out computational principles in nature which could improve the performance of various machine learning techniques.