User:Doursat
From NECSIWiki
Dr. René Doursat, Research Engineer
Institut des Systèmes Complexes
Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée (CREA)
CNRS & Ecole Polytechnique
1, rue Descartes, 75005 Paris, France
http://doursat.free.fr
doursat@yahoo.com
[edit] Summary
I am currently a temporary researcher and professor in computer science, specifically complex systems and neural computation, after a segue through software industry. My goal is to be a long-term faculty member at a research-oriented academic institution where I can contribute to its prestige and create a home by innovative scholarly research and excellence in teaching. I would also be happy to consider a new transitional visiting/research position.
I have 10 years of research and teaching experience at leading institutions in Europe and the United States. My research activities address complex systems & self-organization, including spiking neural networks & cognitive science, computational biological modeling (artificial life), multi-agent networks and biologically-inspired engineering. In addition, I have 9 years of industry experience as a software engineer & architect, a significant asset in any position that requires proficiency in computer technologies and programming for both scientific research and technology-enhanced teaching.
An alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris (the most selective college in France), I completed my doctoral degree in 1991 at the age of 25 in applied mathematics/computational physics (neural network modeling), then was appointed to a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Bochum, Germany. Directly after my postdoc, I decided to pursue opportunities in the software industry, while also continuing research at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, in the CREA Institute (a research center in complex systems and cognitive science). In 1998, I relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and assumed lead engineering and architect roles in several start-up companies.
Since 2004, I have resumed academic research and teaching on a full-time basis. From 2004 to 2006 I was a Research/Visiting Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Today, while still an active collaborator of UNR's Brain Computation Laboratory (as a co-PI in a $800K grant) and colleagues in the Departments of Computer Science and Biology, I hold a Research Engineer position at the Institut des Systèmes Complexes in Paris (co-administered by CNRS and Ecole Polytechnique). In little over two years since my return to academia I have strengthened and initiated important scientific relationships and created several original research projects with various institutions in the United States and in Europe. This new period led to the publication of an additional 3 journal articles, 8 contributions to conferences (on 6 different topics) and the preparation of a few other papers.
I have also been very active in teaching. The Department of Computer Science at UNR welcomed my proposal to add to the curriculum an original, cross-disciplinary graduate seminar on complex systems. I single-handedly designed and developed this course from scratch, which included lectures, readings, student presentations, programming assignments and supervision of term projects. Both students and auditing faculty members have given very positive feedback on the course contents and my teaching abilities. Added to two other undergraduate level courses in computer science, I have created over 1,000 original slides, many of which are now used by other instructors. I was also selected first candidate at an interview for a mathematics instructor position in a community college (which I declined in favor of the university).
In summary, having been originally trained in fundamental research and having complemented my knowledge with industry's technological and pragmatic challenges, I wish to fully return to academia, where my heart belongs. My greatest joy and sense of fulfillment come from reading the scientific literature, creating models and applications, and communicating the passion of research to my peers and students.
For more information, please visit the different sections of my Web site at http://doursat.free.fr. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
[edit] Publications Presented at ICCS 2006
Doursat, R. (2006) The growing canvas of biological development: Multiscale pattern generation on an expanding lattice of gene regulatory networks
Doursat, R., and Bienenstock, E. (2006) How activity regulates connectivity: A self-organizing complex neural network
Hoelzer, G., Drewes, R., and Doursat, R. (2006) Temporal waves of genetic diversity in a spatially explicit model of evolution: heaving toward speciation
