Kording obtained both a diploma degree and a PhD in physics at
ETH Zurich in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He then worked as a
postdoctoral fellow at the Collegium Helveticum in Zurich and at
University College London, followed by a Heisenberg Fellow position at
MIT.[1] He joined the faculty at
Northwestern University and the
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago where he was a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, physiology, and applied mathematics.[2] In 2017, he joined the faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania with joint appointments in the Department of Neuroscience and Department of Bioengineering.[1]
Scientific contributions
Konrad Kording's research combines experimental methods with the application of computational principles. The main principle of his work is the idea of normative models and in particular Bayesian statistics. Some of his most controversial work[citation needed] is work on predicting the future success of scientists, leading to a calculator
predicting the h-index 10 years into the future. His experimental work addresses
motor learning and
motor control, relating these phenomena to
Bayesian ideas. Most recently, he has focused on methods of analyzing neural data and methods for obtaining large neural datasets (see
Brain Initiative). Kording is a frequent advocate of shifting research paradigms in neuroscience, publishing and co-authoring various letters, papers, and talks on the applications of deep learning in neuroscience.[3][4][5][6]
In 2023, Kording was one of several prominent scientists leading calls to reverse engineer an entire nervous system.[7]
Science Education
After the
COVID-19 pandemic shut down neuroscience summer schools and workshops worldwide in 2020, Kording co-founded
Neuromatch, a non-profit organization focused on promoting equity in the sciences and advancing
open science policies, alongside
Megan Peters,
Paul Schrater,
Sean Escola,
Athena Akrami,
Kate Bonnen,
Carsen Stringer,
Brad Wyble, and
Gunnar Blohm.[8] The project started with Neuromatch Conference and later expanded to Neuromatch Academy and the Neuromatch Open Publishing journal. As an organization, Neuromatch has quickly risen to the forefront of the
open science and
remote learning movements, enjoying extensive news coverage in the wake of both its success and its efforts to obtain special permission from the US
Office of Foreign Assets Control to teach students from Iran.[9][10][11][12] Since 2020, Neuromatch has hosted annual conferences and workshops.[13]
In 2021, Neuromatch Academy added a
deep learning course in addition to its original
computational neuroscience course. The school has taught over 10,000 students with the help of several hundred teaching assistants across its three iterations. Neuromatch Academy has been the subject of several papers exploring the educational efficacy and accessibility of its program.[14][15][16][17]
That same month, Kording was awarded a grant by the
National Institutes of Health to "develop a user-friendly, open-source educational platform of modules that address biases in research, logical fallacies around causality, hypothesis development, literature search design, identifying experimental variables, and reducing confounding variables in research."[19] Kording's initiative, called the Community for Rigor, launched their website later the same year.<[20]
Kording has also published and co-authored papers on the subject of open data.[21]
^Kording, Konrad (26 February 2024). "Neural decoding for BCI: the objectives, principles and the future". 2024 12th International Winter Conference on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). pp. 1–2.
doi:
10.1109/BCI60775.2024.10480472.
ISBN979-8-3503-0943-0.