Lance M. Optican, Ph.D.

Biography
Curriculum Vitae
Recent Publications
Documents
Presentations

Curriculum Vitae

Contents

• Education
• Positions
• Research Interests
• Patents
• Scientific Recognition
• Post-Doctoral Fellows

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., 1978: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine. Dissertation: Cerebellar-dependent adaptive control of the saccadic eye movement system.
• B.Sc., 1972: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. B.Sc., with Honors, in Independent Studies (Physics and Biosystems Analysis).

POSITIONS

• 2006-present: Chief, Section on Neural Modeling, Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 2002-2006: Acting Chief, Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 1988-present: Chief, Section on Neural Modeling, Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 1985-present: Research Biomedical Engineer (Tenured), Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 1982-1985: Senior Staff Fellow of the National Eye Institute, in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, NEI, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 1979-1982: Staff Fellow of the National Eye Institute, in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, NEI, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
• 1978-1979: Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Eye Institute, in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, with Dr. F. A. Miles.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Neuromimetic theory of movement control by cerebellum, inferior olive, superior colliculus, midbrain and brain stem.
• Theory of short-term visual memory
• Theory of brain function in vision and memory.
• Analysis and modeling of oculomotor control systems, particularly the neuronal mechanisms of saccadic, vergence and pursuit eye movement systems.
• Analysis and modeling of neuronal mechanisms underlying visual perception, pattern recognition, memory, and other higher cognitive functions.

PATENTS

• United States Patent 5,037,376, awarded Aug. 6, 1991: "Apparatus and Method for Transmitting Prosthetic Information to the Brain".

SCIENTIFIC RECOGNITION

Outside Activities

• 1995 Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley (Sept - Oct), awarded by the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
• 1992 Consultant to the Machine Vision Simulations Division, Rockwell International Science Center, Thousand Oaks, California.

Editorial Boards

• Neural Networks, 1988-Present, the official journal of the International Neural Network Society.
• Journal of Neurophysiology, 1995-2003, published by the American Physiological Society.

Society Memberships

• AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• International Neural Network Society.
• IEEE, Senior Member
• Neural Control of Movement Society.
• Society for Neuroscience.

Scientific Sessions Organized

• 2003 "Progress in Sensorimotor Research", a conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research of the NEI.
• 2001 Program theme on "Sensory Motor Mapping", IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Istanbul, Turkey.
• 1988 First professional workshop on "Computational neuroscience: ocular motor control", at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Plenary Lectures at Symposia

• 1998 "Modelli di controllo cerebellari: l'integrazione spaziale nel cervelletto" (Control of saccades by superior colliculus and cerebellum). University of Triese, Italy. Italian group on ocular movements (GIMO), meeting on the coordination of binocular eye movements: "La Coordinazione Dei Movimenti Binoculari". June 2 - 26, 1998.

Invited Symposia Talks

• 2006 "Superior Oblique Palsy" ARVO workshop.
• 2006 "Cerebellar control of movement" NCM symposium
• 2004 "Novel roles of the superior colliculus and cerebellum in generating saccades,"Clinical and Basic Ocular Motor Research, Siena, Italy, Jul 3-5.
• 2004 "Notes on Orbital Dynamics, " ARVO workshop.
• 2002 "How Does the Brain Tell the Eye Where to Go?" Minisymposium Ocular Kinematics, Visual Perception, and Action, J.L. Demer, ARVO.
• 2001 "From Sensory Space to Motor Commands: Lessons from Saccades," IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 25-28, 2001.
• 2001 "A Neural Network Model for Saccade Generation," Neurobiology of Eye Movements: from Molecules to Behavior. A New York Academy of Sciences Conference, Case Western Reserve Medical School, Cleveland, Oct. 4-6.
• 2000 "Neuromimetic Model of Saccade Generation", Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences and Erasmus University. International conference on Eye movements and vision in the natural world. September 27-29, 2000.
• 1998 " Il controllo collicolare e cerebellare dei movimenti saccadici", Gruppo Itailano Movimenti Oculari, Trieste, Italy, June 24-26, 1998.
• 1997 "A commutative controller suffices for ocular rotations" York University, Toronto, Canada, Center for Vision Research, International Conference on Vision and Action, June 25-28, 1997.
• 1997 "Cerebellar Function During Saccadic Eye Movements" New York University, Center for Neural Science, Symposium: From Attention to Action, Contemporary Perspectives on Movement Planning, Preparation, and Initiation, June 6-12, 1997.
• 1997 "Neural Control of Rapid Eye Movements" Boston University, Symposium on Vision, Recognition, Action: Neural Models of Mind and Machine.
• 1995 "How the Brain Generates Sensory-Motor Behavior: A Computational Theory for Controlling Rapid Eye Movements", Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, University of California, San Francisco.
• 1995 "How the Brain Generates Sensory-Motor Behavior: A Computational Theory for Controlling Rapid Eye Movements", Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, Caltech.
• 1995 "Listening to Neurons in Visual Cortex", Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, Salk Institute.
• 1995 "How the Brain Generates Sensory-Motor Behavior: A Computational Theory for Controlling Rapid Eye Movements", the Helmholtz Club, organized by Francis Crick, V. S. Ramachandran, and Gordon Shaw.
• 1995 "Temporal Encoding of Visual Features by Cortical Neurons", in the Bat Sheva Seminar: "Advances in Processing and Pattern Analysis of Biological Signals", Technion, IIT, Haifa. organized by G. F. Inbar and I. Gath.
• 1994 "A Field Theory of Saccade Generation" presented at "Binocular Oculomotor Coordination & Plasticity: Implications for Strabismus," Santorini, Greece.
• 1993 "Control of Saccade Trajectory by the Superior Colliculus", presented at "A Tribute to David A Robinson: Four Decades of Seminal Eye Movement Research," Eibsee, Germany.
• 1991 "Superior colliculus and sensorimotor transformations", presented at the Society for Neuroscience symposium on "Human Eye Saccades -- Sensory and Cortical Factors" organized by P.E. Hallett.
• 1989 "Information Processing by Visual System Neurons", presented in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia and Tokyo, Japan.
• 1986 "Adaptive suppression of post-saccadic ocular drift." Presented at the nineteenth annual mathematical psychology meeting, the society for mathematical psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussets.
• 1985 "Feedback and Plasticity in the Saccadic System." Presented at the Engineering Foundation Conference on Biomechanics & Neural Control of Movement. Henniker, New Hampshire.
• 1984 "Vestibulo-ocular Processing," at the Computational Neuroscience Workshop, Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory.
• 1982 "System Theory and Adaptive Control Applied to the Study of Eye Movements," presented at the Society for Neuroscience symposium on Theoretical Approaches to Motor Control.
• 1981 "Using Retinal Slip and Corrective Saccades to Derive Errors for Adaptive Control of Saccades," presented at the workshop on Oculomotor Modeling at the Carnegie-Mellon University.
• 1979 "Adaptive Control Mechanisms for Saccadic Eye Movements," presented at the workshop on Computer Modeling of Specific Neural Networks held at Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory.

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS

• 2006 - present Ann Dalrymple, MD
• 20003 - present Simon Hong, PhD.
• 2000 - 2003 Kenichiro Mirua, PhD. Current Position: University of Kyoto, Japan.
• 1995 - 2000 Christian Quaia, Laurea & Dottarato. Current position: Staff Scientist, NEI, NIH, DHHS.
• 1995-1997 Philippe Lefèvre, PhD. Current position: Professor, Catholic University of Louvain, and Research Associate, FNRS CESAME
• 1992-1995 John W. McClurkin, PhD. Current Position: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, NEI, NIH, DHHS.
• 1994 -1995 Julian S. Joseph, PhD. Current Postion: Unversity of Nevada.
• 1991 -1992 Zoi Kapoula, PhD. Current position: CNRS, College of France.
• 1988 - 1991 Timothy J. Gawne, PhD (supervised with Barry Richmond, NIMH). Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Alabama, Birmingham.

STUDENTS

• 1999 - 2000 Massimo Lapira. Supervised Laurea in Biomedical Engineering, University of Trieste.
• 1994-1995 Jennifer A. Zarbock. Supervised Masters in Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
• 1991 -1992 Emad N. Eskandar, M.D. Howard Hughes Medical Fellow. Current position: Instructor in Surgery (Neurosurgery), Harvard Medical School, and Attending Neurosurgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital.