DEPARTMENT OF VISION SCIENCES
Timothy Gawne, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Vision Sciences
Contact Information:
Office - (205) 934-5495
Physical Address:
664 Worrell Building
924 18th Street South
Mailing Address:
WORB 664
1530 Third Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-4390
Biographical Sketch:
Education:
B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Administrative Responsibilities:
Director, Vision Science Research Center Computer Module
Secondary Appointments:
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology
Scholarly Activity:
Teaching:
VIS121 Neurobiology of the Visual System - Neurobiology course for the optometry students, taught every year.
VIS728 Computational Neuroscience Methods - Graduate course. The course is heavily oriented towards developing problem-solving skills and learning MATLAB.
VIS450/VIS550 Electronics for Biologists - An advanced undergraduate/graduate course with the aim of making sure that biologists performing electrophysiological experiments actually know what ohm's law is, why you should use a high input-impedance amplifier in electrophysiology and which end of a soldering iron to hold on to.
VIS727 Systems Neuroscience Journal Club - graduate systems neuroscience journal club.
VIS747 Central Visual Mechanisms I - An intensive 8-week "module" designed for students in the vision science program and general neuroscience/neurobiology, covers the central visual pathways, an emphasis on primates and links between non-human primates and humans.
Research:
The research aim in Dr. Gawne's lab is to determine how the nervous system codes and processes information. The primary method used is recording from single neurons and small groups of single neurons in the visual system, primarily the visual cortical system but also in thalamus and retina. Dr. Gawne makes heavy use of computational and engineering techniques in this research. Currently the major ongoing project is to determine how neuronal dynamics - especially relative input timing - affect the computations performed in cortex.
Publications