Ian Cone, Ph.D.

Ian Cone joined UT Southwestern Medical Center in September 2026 as an Assistant Professor in the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He leads the Computational Neuroscience (CoNe) Lab in the Program in Memory Longevity. Prior to starting his lab at UT Southwestern, Ian completed his postdoctoral research at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, under Dr. Claudia Clopath and Dr. Rui Ponte Costa. Ian has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Rice University, where he was supervised by Dr. Harel Shouval.

Dr. Cone’s research is broadly focused on using theoretical and computational models to study the relationship between synaptic plasticity, credit assignment, and network function. The CoNe lab is particularly interested in how single-cell learning rules in hippocampus lead to the emergence of complex cognitive maps, and how dysfunction in the underlying cellular mechanisms can disrupt the formation and maintenance of these maps. The lab works closely with experimental neuroscientists on a range of topics related to learning and memory, using its models to create quantitative, testable predictions for experiments. A full list of Dr. Cone's publications is available on his Google Scholar page.