Biography

Since November 2021, Wenhao Zhang has been appointed as Assistant Professor in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, and had his secondary appointment in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute. He is awarded as the Lupe Murchison foundation scholar in medical research. Before establishing his lab at UT Southwestern, Wenhao did his postdoc research on Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on developing biologically plausible normative theories that address fundamental questions of information processing in the brain and artificial systems. His research aims to provide theoretical explanations of system neuroscience experiments, as well as shed novel insight from neural systems to develop new intelligent algorithms. To achieve this goal, he has been maintaining intensive collaborations with experimental neuroscientists and psychologists, and computer scientists. See his Google Scholar page for the full list of his publications.

Research Interest

  • 1. Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience
  • 2. Neural coding and Bayesian inference
  • 3. Neural network dynamics (Continuous attractor network, Spiking network)
  • 4. Multisensory integration and Causal inference
  • 5. Invariant and equivarient representation in neural circuits

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

Adaptation Accelerating Sampling-based Bayesian Inference in Attractor Neural Networks
X. Dong, Z. Ji, T. Chu, T. Huang, W.H. Zhang*, Si Wu* Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2022
Oscillatory Tracking of Continuous Attractor Neural Networks Account for Phase Precession and Procession of Hippocampal Place Cells.
T. Chu, Z. Ji, J. Zuo, W.H. Zhang, T. Huang, Y. Mi, S, Wu Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2022

Honors & Awards

  • Lupe Murchison Foundation Scholar in Medical Research
    (2021)