Tamar Flash

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Tamar Flash is a professor of computer science and applied mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. In her research, she focuses on computational neuroscience, specifically on the control of movement by the brain. Experimental data drawn from precise observation of human subjects have enabled Flash to develop mathematical models characterizing the way in which the human brain plans and controls movements of the hand and arm, locomotion, and other full body movements. Flash also seeks new insights into the pathophysiological processes and mechanisms underlying various movement disorders. Her research further focuses on the development of biologically inspired robotic systems.

At Radcliffe, Flash will expand on a recently developed theory regarding movement representation in the brain, based on a mixture of geometries. She will study the possible relationships between space, time, and movement representation in the brain and formulate ideas and models concerning motor compositionality.

Flash earned her BSc and MSc degrees in physics from Tel Aviv University and her PhD in medical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She carried out her postdoctoral training at MIT. She established a research group at the Weizmann Institute, where she has also served as head of the board of studies and of the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Flash was a visiting professor at MIT and the Collège de France, and her papers have been published in journals such as Biological Cybernetics, the Journal of Neuroscience, the Journal of Neurophysiology, PLoS Computational Biology, Nature, PNAS, and Science.