Hi there!

My name is Jonathan Touboul, I am Professor at Brandeis University in the Math Department and in the Volen Center for Complex Systems.

My work (see Publications list) deals with mathematical modeling and mathematical analysis of dynamical systems and stochastic processes. I am passionate about mathematical modeling in biology, and fascinated by neurosciences, ecology and embryonic development in particular. I particularly like to investigate the role of randomness in these processes.

This led me to study how stochastic neural activity can yield regular dynamics in the brain, but also to study models of plasticity mechanisms, which are the elementary elements of how we learn and acquire new skills. But also, models of Parkinson’s disease and its treatments. 

Previously (see my Resume), I was group-leader at Collège de France, in the heart of old Paris, and my lab was hosted in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology. Even before this, I was a postdoc in the Department of Mathematics at Pittsburgh University, under the mentoring of Bard Ermentrout, and at the Mathematical Physics laboratory of the Rockefeller University in New-York (2010) working with Marcelo Magnasco. I performed my PhD in applied mathematics at Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and INRIA, and obtained my degree in Math and Applications from École Polytechnique.

When I'm not working, you'll find me enjoying time with my daughter and wonderful family, fixing some mid-century tube radio, fixing or riding some rusty random moped from the 1960s or 70s.

Selected publications:

1. In vitro characterization of the human segmentation clock (Margarete Diaz-Cuadros, Daniel E. Wagner, Christoph Budjan, Alexis Hubaud, Oscar A. Tarazona, Sophia Donelly, Arthur Michaut, Ziad Al Tanoury, Kumiko Yoshioka-Kobayashi, Yusuke Niino, Ryoichiro Kageyama, Atsushi Miyawaki, Jonathan Touboul & Olivier Pourquié) Nature (2020). 

2. Opto-activation of cortical somatostatin interneurons alleviates parkinsonian symptoms (Marie Vandecasteele, Sebastien Valverde, Charlotte Piette, Giuseppe Gangarossa, Willy Derousseaux, Asier Aristieta Arbelaiz, Jonathan Touboul*, Bertrand Degos*, Laurent Venance*), Nature Communications (2020).

3. Noise-induced synchronization and anti-resonance in interacting excitable systems; Applications to Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease (J. Touboul, C. Piette, L. Venance, G. Bard Ermentrout) – Physical Review X, in press (2020).

4. On the complex dynamics of savanna landscapes (J. Touboul, A.C. Staver, S.A. Levin), Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA (PNAS Plus) – 115 (7) E1336-E1345 (2018)
   Press Coverage: SIAM News, Nov. 2018

5. On a kinetic Fizhugh-Nagumo model of neuronal network (with Stéphane Mischler and Cristóbal Quiñinao), Communications in Mathematical Physics 342 (3) pp 1001–1042 (2016).

6. The Hipster Effect: When anticonformist all look the same (DCDS-B, to appear). Press Coverage: see the dedicated page.