Department of Mathematical Sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology

Louis Tao E-mail: tao at njit dot edu Address: Dept of Mathematical Sciences, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102-1982 Telephone: (973) 596-3491 (voice), 596-5591 (fax)

DMS Colloquium Math Biology Seminar Schedule             Rutgers-Newark CMBN Colloquium MPI Stuff  DMS Computing Page My Research Interests: Mathematical models of the visual cortex Nonlinear instabilities of shear flows Formation and dynamics of coherent structures  Fractal analysis and chaotic dynamical systems

Recently I have started my new life as an applied mathematician at NJIT. In the recent years, I have collaborations with Michael Shelley, Dave McLaughlin, Bob Shapley and David Cai, on a mathematical model of the visual cortex. The existing model already makes some interesting predictions about orientation tuning in V1, offers an explanation of the so-called Simple Cells, and suggests a particular statistical operating point for the visual cortex during visual stimulus. In particular, temporal fluctuations in the synaptic conductances are seen to play a major role in the large-scale network dynamics of V1. Most recently, we have developed an effective kinetic theoretical representation of these, fluctuation-driven, neuronal networks.

My CV ( PDF,; DOC)

Background:

Recent Publications & Pre-prints:

• ``Orientation Selectivity in Visual Cortex by Fluctuation-Controlled Criticality," Louis Tao, David Cai, David McLaughlin, Michael Shelley & Robert Shapley, PNAS 103, 12911-12916 (2006).
  
• ``Kinetic Theory for Neuronal Network Dynamics," David Cai, Louis Tao, Aaditya Rangan & David McLaughlin, Comm. Math. Sci. 4, 97-127 (2006).
  
• ``Numerical Methods for Solving Moment Equations in Kinetic Theory of Neuronal Network Dynamics," Aaditya Rangan, David Cai & Louis Tao, J. Comput. Phys. 221, 781-798 (2007).
  
• `` An Embedded Network Approach for Scale-up of Fluctuation-driven Systems with Preservation of Spike Information ,'' David Cai, Louis Tao & David McLaughlin, PNAS, 101 14288-14293 (2004).
• `` An Effective Kinetic Representation of Fluctuation-driven Neuronal Networks with Application to Simple and Complex Cells in Visual Cortex ,'' David Cai, Louis Tao, Michael Shelley & David McLaughlin, PNAS, 101 7757-7762 (2004).
• `` An Egalitarian Network Model for the Emergence of Simple and Complex Cells in Visual Cortex ,'' Louis Tao, Michael Shelley, David McLaughlin & Robert Shapley, PNAS, 101 366-371 (2004). (On-line Supporting Text)
• `` Bistability and Tunable Gating in a Recurrent Neuronal Network with Synaptic Failure and Hidden Neurons ,'' Louis Tao, David Cai & Michael J. Shelley

Other Publications:

• `` Efficient and Accurate Time-Stepping Schemes for Integrate-and-Fire Neural Networks,'' Michael J. Shelley & Louis Tao, J. Comput. Neurosci. 11 111-119 (2001).
• `` Resonant Vibrational Instabilities in Magnetized Stellar Atmospheres'' Aaron C. Birch, Alexander G. Kosovichev, Edward A. Spiegel & Louis Tao, Solar Physics 199 291 (2001)
• `` A Central Engine for Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Sources,'' M.A. Ruderman, L. Tao & W. Kluzniak ApJ542 243 (2000)
• `` Domain Growth in Ternary Fluids: A Level Set Approach,'' K.A. Smith, F.J. Solis, L. Tao, K. Thornton, and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 91 (2000) (may be downloaded as PDF file)
• `` Photofluid instabilities of hot stellar atmospheres,'' Edward A. Spiegel and Louis Tao, Phys. Rep. 311 163 (1999)
• `` Stellar oscillons,'' O. Matt Umurhan, Louis Tao, and Edward A. Spiegel, Ann. NY Acad. Sci. as part of the Proceedings of the Florida Workshop 867 298 (1999) (Figure 1, Figure 2)
• `` Flux expulsion by inhomogeneous turbulence,'' L. Tao, M.R.E. Proctor, and N.O. Weiss Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc 300 907-914 (1998) (also available as PDF)
• `` Flux separation in stellar magnetoconvection,'' L. Tao, N.O. Weiss, D.P. Brownjohn, and M.R.E. Proctor Astrophys. J. Lett. 496 39-42 (1998) also available as PDF)
• `` The lacunarity of random fractals,'' Francisco J. Solis and Louis Tao, Physics Letters A 228, 351-356 (1997)
• `` Fluctuations in quasi-two-dimensional fast dynamos,'' F. Cattaneo, E.-J. Kim, M. Proctor, and L. Tao, Physical Review Letters 75, 1522-1525 (1995)
• `` On the suppression of thermal conduction by magnetic fields,'' PhD Thesis, the University of Chicago, Department of Physics, 1995.
• `` On the suppression of thermal conduction by magnetic fields,'' (PDF) Louis Tao, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 275, 965-975 (1995)
• `` On the spatial distribution of magnetic fields on the solar surface,'' Louis Tao, Yunson Du, Robert Rosner, and Fausto Cattaneo, Astrophysical Journal 443, 434-443 (1995)
• `` Evidence for the suppression of the alpha-effect by weak magnetic fields,'' Louis Tao, Fausto Cattaneo, and Samuel I. Vainshtein, in Solar and Planetary Dynamos, eds. M.R.E. Proctor, P.C. Matthews, and A.M.Rucklidge, Cambridge University Press (1993)
• `` Turbulent magnetic transport effects and their relation to magnetic field intermittency,'' Samuel I. Vainshtein, Louis Tao, Fausto Cattaneo, and Robert Rosner, in Solar and Planetary Dynamos, eds. M.R.E. Proctor, P.C. Matthews, and A.M.Rucklidge, Cambridge University Press (1993)

Personal:

``Cupcakes''

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Last updated: Monday, 14 August 2006.