Terrence Sejnowski, PhD

Professor and Laboratory Head

Computational Neurobiology Laboratory

Francis Crick Chair

Terry Sejnowski
Salk Institute for Biological Studies - News

News


Upgrading brain storage: Quantifying how much information our synapses can hold

LA JOLLA—With each flip you make through a deck of vocabulary word flashcards, their definitions come more quickly, more easily. This process of learning and remembering new information strengthens important …


Salk Professor Terrence Sejnowski wins Brain Prize

LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professor Terrence Sejnowski will receive the 2024 Brain Prize for “pioneering the field of computational and theoretical neuroscience, making seminal contributions to our understanding of the brain, …


Salk Institute’s Terrence Sejnowski named Scientist of the Year by ARCS San Diego

LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professor Terrence Sejnowski has been named 2024 Scientist of the Year by the ARCS Foundation of San Diego. The ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Students) San Diego …


AI chatbot ChatGPT mirrors its users to appear intelligent

LA JOLLA—The artificial intelligence (AI) language model ChatGPT has captured the world’s attention in recent months. This trained computer chatbot can generate text, answer questions, provide translations, and learn based …


Salk Institute’s Terrence Sejnowski awarded Gruber Prize

LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professor Terrence Sejnowski has been awarded the 2022 Gruber Neuroscience Prize by the Gruber Foundation for his “pioneering contributions to computational and theoretical neuroscience.” He shares the …


Computational model reveals how the brain manages short-term memories

LA JOLLA—If you’ve ever forgotten something mere seconds after it was at the forefront of your mind—the name of a dish you were about to order at a restaurant, for …


Teaching artificial intelligence to adapt

LA JOLLA—Getting computers to “think” like humans is the holy grail of artificial intelligence, but human brains turn out to be tough acts to follow. The human brain is a …


Traveling brain waves help detect hard-to-see objects

LA JOLLA—Imagine that you’re late for work and desperately searching for your car keys. You’ve looked all over the house but cannot seem to find them anywhere. All of a …


Eight Salk professors named among most highly cited researchers in the world

LA JOLLA—Salk Professors Joanne Chory, Joseph Ecker, Ronald Evans, Rusty Gage, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Terrence Sejnowski, Reuben Shaw and Kay Tye have been named to the Highly Cited Researchers list by Clarivate Analytics. …


Brain’s astrocytes play starring role in long-term memory

LA JOLLA—Star-shaped cells called astrocytes help the brain establish long-lasting memories, Salk researchers have discovered. The new work adds to a growing body of evidence that astrocytes, long considered to …


Researchers train robotic gliders to soar

LA JOLLA—The words “fly like an eagle” are famously part of a song, but they may also be words that make some scientists scratch their heads. Especially when it comes …


Making new memories is a balancing act

LA JOLLA—Those of us who can’t resist tourist tchotchkes are big fans of suitcases with an expandable compartment. Now, it turns out the brain’s capacity for storing new memories is …


Salk scientists Joanne Chory and Terrence Sejnowski named to National Academy of Inventors

LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professors Joanne Chory and Terrence Sejnowski have been elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Chory is director of the Salk Institute’s Plant Molecular and …


Salk neuroscientist receives new NSF award to model the brain

LA JOLLA—As part of the National Science Foundation’s funding for new multidisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, Salk Professor Terrence Sejnowski together with the California Institute of Technology will receive over $1 …


Salk teams part of new effort to advance understanding of brain structure

LA JOLLA—Two Salk neuroscience labs are part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) effort to better understand the brain. Salk Professors Terrence Sejnowski and Ed Callaway are each collaborators in …


“Princess Leia” brainwaves help sleeping brain store memories

LA JOLLA—Every night while you sleep, electrical waves of brain activity circle around each side of your brain, tracing a pattern that, were it on the surface of your head, …


Salk scientists adapt computer program to gauge eye spasm severity

LA JOLLA—If two clinicians observe the same patient with blepharospasm—uncontrollable muscle contractions around the eye—they’ll often come away with two different conclusions on the severity of the patient’s symptoms. That’s …


Memory capacity of brain is 10 times more than previously thought

LA JOLLA—Salk researchers and collaborators have achieved critical insight into the size of neural connections, putting the memory capacity of the brain far higher than common estimates. The new work …


Terrence Sejnowski receives Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

LA JOLLA–The Society for Neuroscience (SfN), an organization of nearly 40,000 scientists and clinicians, will award the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience to Terrence Sejnowski, Salk professor and …


Receptors in brain linked to schizophrenia, autism

LA JOLLA–The loss of a critical receptor in a special class of inhibitory neurons in the brain may be responsible for neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and schizophrenia, according to new research …


Memory relies on astrocytes, the brain’s lesser-known cells

LA JOLLA—When you’re expecting something—like the meal you’ve ordered at a restaurant—or when or when something captures your interest, unique electrical rhythms sweep through your brain.

These waves are called gamma …


Scientists explain how memories stick together

LA JOLLA—Scientists at the Salk Institute have created a new model of memory that explains how neurons retain select memories a few hours after an event.

The hippocampus is a region …


Unique epigenomic code identified during human brain development

LA JOLLA,CA—Changes in the epigenome, including chemical modifications of DNA, can act as an extra layer of information in the genome, and are thought to play a role in learning …


Salk scientist Terrence Sejnowski elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA—Salk researcher Terrence J. Sejnowski, professor and head of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a distinction awarded …


Salk applauds Obama’s ambitious BRAIN Initiative to research human mind

LA JOLLA, CA—Salk neuroscientist Terrence J. Sejnowski joined President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2013, at the launch of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) …


Salk professor Terrence Sejnowski receives IEEE Frank Rosenblatt Award

LA JOLLA, CA—The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, has awarded Terrence …


Salk professor Terrence Sejnowski elected to National Academy of Engineering

LA JOLLA, CA—Salk Institute professor Terry J. Sejnowski, Ph.D., has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an honor considered one of the highest accolades in the …


Decoding the disease that perplexes: Salk scientists discover new target for MS

LA JOLLA, CA—Scientists are closer to solving one of the many mysteries of multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases, thanks to a recent study conducted at the Salk Institute for …


Salk scientist Terrence Sejnowski elected to National Academy of Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA—Salk Institute professor Terrence J. Sejnowski, Ph.D., whose work on neural networks helped spark the neural networks revolution in computing in the 1980s, has been elected a member …


All for one and one for all!

LA JOLLA, CA—There is strength in numbers if you want to get your voice heard. But how to do you get your say if you are in the minority? That’s …


New science of learning offers preview of tomorrow

LA JOLLA, CA—Of all the qualities that distinguish humans from other species, how we learn is one of the most significant. In the July 17, 2009 issue …


Salk Researcher Terry Sejnowski Elected to Institute of Medicine

La Jolla, CA – Terry Sejnowski, Ph.D., professor and head of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the IOM has …


Salk scientists named 2006 AAAS Fellows

La Jolla, CA – Professors Terrence J. Sejnowski and Inder Verma have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow. Election as a Fellow of the American Association …


Salk scientists overturn a dogma of nerve cell communication

La Jolla, CA – Every neurobiology textbook invariably states that nerve cells communicate with each other through synapses, the specialized cell-cell contacts found at the end of the cells’ threadlike …


New Light on How the Brain Handles Brightness

La Jolla, CA – Studies by a Salk Institute research team on how we perceive the brightness of light may reveal how the brain is wired to handle the wide ranges …


Salk Researcher Provides New View on How the Brain Functions

La Jolla, CA – Scientists are developing a new paradigm for how the brain functions. They propose that the brain is not a huge fixed network, as had been previously …


New Book Reveals Complexities Of The Human Mind

La Jolla, CA – Who are we? Are we good or fundamentally evil? What makes us happy? Who can we become? These are the questions prefacing a new book, Liars, …


New View of Brain’s Inner Workings Opens Research Into Autism, Other Disorders

La Jolla, CA – According to accepted dogma, the brain responds to sensory experiences somewhat like an electronic bucket brigade, with incoming signals passed from one region to the next …


We Live In The Past, Salk Scientists Discover

La Jolla, CA – If you think you’re living in the past, you’re right – and science can tell you just how far behind the times you are. According to …


Computer program trained to read faces developed by Salk team

La Jolla, CA – A computer program developed by a Salk-led team has been trained to distinguish among a number of facial cues, helping to sort false from genuine expressions. …


Education

BS, Physics, Case Western Reserve University
PhD, Physics, Princeton University
Postdoctoral Fellow, Biology, Princeton; Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School


Affiliations


Awards & Honors

  • Brain Prize, 2024
  • ARCS San Diego 2024 Scientist of the Year, 2024
  • Gruber Neuroscience Prize, 2022
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow, 2013
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Frank Rosenblatt Award, 2013
  • National Academy of Engineering, 2011
  • National Academy of Sciences, 2010
  • National Academy of Medicine, 2008
  • National Research Council of National Academies, 2008
  • American Association Advancement of Science Fellow, 2006
  • Francis Crick Chair funded by the J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation, 2004
  • Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, 2003
  • Neural Network Pioneer Award, 2002
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow, 2000
  • Hebb Prize, 1999
  • Wright Prize, 1996
  • Fairchild Distinguished Scholar, 1992-93
  • Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1984-89
  • HHMI Investigator, 1991