We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.
- Alan Turing
Hi, I am Carlton Smith! I am a physics graduate student and NSF and Wu Tsai Graduate Fellow at Yale University interested in the application of physical techniques and concepts to neuroscience specifically and biology broadly. For a bit of background, I studied at and graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. Currently, I study the statistical physics of neural systems as a part of Dr. Christopher Lynn's SP↑N Lab at Yale University. I most recently had the privilege of working with Dr. Shreya Saxena's Lab of Neural Control, where I developed dimensionality-reduction methods used to characeterize the variability in neural acticity across subjects and within subjects during the learning of a decision-making task. Before that, I helped characterize the behavior of models of synaptic plasticity under the instruction of Dr. Dmitri Chklovskii and Dr. David Lipshutz through the Simons-NSBP Scholars Program. Prior, I engaged in research in image denoising and machine learning for material characterization as a part of NYU's CDS Undergraduate Research Program, working under the instruction of Dr. Carlos Fernandez-Granda.
Additionally, I have been a NSBP Student Council member since 2022, where, as a member of the Programs Committee, I currently co-organize programs such as the KITP-NSBP Innovate Seminar Series or NSBP Visions Series.
In my free time you can catch me cooking, listening to music, practicing my bass or guitar, reading, or exploring cityscapes!