Ehud Ahissar, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot, IsraelProf. Ehud Ahissar completed his BSc in Electrical Engineering at Tel Aviv University in 1978.
After working in Israel’s high-tech sector, he transitioned to academia, earning his PhD in
Neurobiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1991. Throughout his career, he has contributed extensively to the fields of active sensing, neural coding, and plasticity.
Prof. Ahissar has explored the dynamic nature of perception, focusing on how organisms actively sense and adapt to their environment and he developed a comprehensive theory of
adaptive, closed-loop perception. In studying neural coding, he demonstrated that object
location is encoded by active whiskers using a triple, orthogonal coding scheme, conveyed via
parallel afferent pathways and recoded through phase-locked loop-like computations in thalamocortical circuits. He also showed that cortical plasticity follows a multiplicative learning rule.
Prof. Ahissar has mentored more than 60 students and has designed and taught courses on perception, active sensing, and systems neuroscience at the Weizmann Institute. He has directed and co-directed advanced courses, including Computational Neuroscience, Cosyne Workshops, Emergent Structures in Physics and Neuroscience, Coding Schemes in the Rat Sensory-Motor Vibrissal System, and Active Sensing in Touch, Vision, and Smell. He authored a popular book in Hebrew titled ‘What is Science Actually’.
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