Damon A. Clark, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Physics and Neuroscience. He received his A.B. in physics from Princeton University, after which he spent one year as an intern and data analyst working on refugee issues in Somaliland for the International Rescue Committee. He received his PhD in physics at Harvard University, where he studied how the small nervous system in C. elegans encodes temperature preference behaviors. During his postdoctoral work at Stanford, he studied how early visual neurons guide behavior in the fruit fly Drosophila. At Yale, his lab is interested in understanding how small networks of neurons perform sophisticated computations that guide behavior.
Administrative Support:
Susan Brady
Research
Our lab aims to understand how small networks of neurons perform basic neural computations. Our goal is to achieve this understanding at three different levels: on a computational level, one can understand what behavioral purpose is served by a particular neural circuit; on an algorithmic level, one can understand the mathematical operations being performed by a circuit; on an mechanistic level, one can understand how biophysical and synaptic properties generate those mathematical operations. We use visual and olfactory behaviors in the model system Drosophila to investigate the roles that individual neurons play in network computations. Our primary tools are detailed behavioral measurements, novel visual stimuli (including visual illusions), genetic tools that can manipulate individual neurons, in vivo imaging of neural activity, and quantitative modeling.
Honors and Awards
- Searle Scholar Award
- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Neuroscience
- Smith Family Award.