Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences

The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is a multi-disciplinary research institute, internationally active in the fields of complexity science and neuroscience.
Organization
The mission of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences is to understand the principles and mechanisms underlying complex behavior on levels from molecules to people and their interactions. The Center is internationally active in the fields of complexity science and neuroscience.
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, founded by J. A. Scott Kelso in 1985, is dedicated to understanding the principles and mechanisms that underlie complex behavior. From the microscopic level of cells and organelles to the grand scale of human interaction, our mission is to bring together multiple disciplines and backgrounds such as theoretical physics, complexity science, cognitive psychology, laboratory biology, applied mathematics and philosophy to tackle the most profound questions of brain, the mind, consciousness, and behavior. The Center is a state of the art, multi-disciplinary research and academic unit in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University.
Ph.D. program
Since 1994, the Center has been the home for a unique Ph.D program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. Students learn how medical imaging techniques, laboratory biology, and analytical and computational mathematics can be combined to offer powerful and unique insights into the human brain and other complex phenomena. Our goal is to create a “new breed” of neuroscientist who can unite theory and experiment, computational modeling, laboratory biology, and medical imaging to be at the cutting edge of brain research. Our graduates have pursued research careers at Institutions such as Harvard, Brown, Emory, New York University, the Salk Institute, and the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego in addition to private industry such as IBM and Mathworks, and institutions such as NIH, US Air Force, NASA and NRL.
The aim of this program is to create a new kind of brain scientist who will be both biologically and mathematically literate who will bring new ways of thinking into neuroscience. The courses are research oriented and consist of a core curriculum in neuroscience (including computational and cognitive neuroscience), the mathematical concepts and tools of nonlinear dynamical systems, and computational science.
Applications continue to be accepted for fully funded PhD training in Complex Systems & Brain Sciences. The aim of this 5-year graduate program is to train scientists to perform cutting-edge brain research that combines computational modeling, laboratory biology, and medical imaging. Students learn how this combination can yield powerful insights into the operation of the human brain as a complex dynamical system. Individuals with undergraduate degrees in any pertinent discipline are invited to apply. The program offers multi-year stipends and tuition remission.
Research opportunities are available using behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific methods. Research projects will focus on approaches to understanding the brain as a complex system, with possible concentrations in areas such as computational neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, systems neuroscience, neurorobotics, molecular neurobiology, cellular physiology, and neuronal regeneration. A new 3T scanner and multi-channel EEG recording systems will be available for neuroimaging research. Opportunities also exist for research collaborations with the new Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital (BRRH).
Some of the Ph.D. Graduates are John Jeka, Tom Holroyd, Fred Carver, Walter B. Hoover, and Stephanie Linley.
Faculty Members
* Elan Barenholtz
* Janet Blanks
* Steve Bressler
* Armin Fuchs
* Howard Hock
* J. A. Scott Kelso
* Summer Sheremata
* Wen Shen
* Howard Prentice
* Robert Stackman
* Garry Perry
* Robert P. Vertes
* Jang Yen Wu

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