Curriculum Vitae

Affiliation

Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience
Drake Circus, Portland Square Building, Room A218
University of Plymouth
PL4 8AA Plymouth
United Kingdom

Phone: +44(0)1752-23-3593
Fax: +44(0)1752-23-3349
Email: Thomas.Wennekers@plymouth.ac.uk

Personal Information

Citizenship:	German
Date of Birth:	June 21, 1963
Place of Birth:	Wesel, Northrhinewestfalia, Germany

Research Experience

11/03 - now	Reader in Computational Neuroscience, Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK
04/03 - 11/03	Juniorprofessor in Theoretical Neuroscience, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
01/99 - 03/03	Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
1991 - 12/98	PhD-Student, then Postdoc, Department for Neural Information Processing, University of Ulm, Germany
1990 - 1991	Operating System Programmer, Vogt-Institute for Brain Research, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany

Education

2006	Potgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Masters level course required for teaching at UK universities)
July 7, 1998	PhD in Computer Science (Dr.rer-nat.) Faculty of Computer Science, University of Ulm, Germany Topic:Synchronization and Association in Neural Networks Supervisor: Prof Gunther Palm
1992 - 98	Education in Neuroscience as PhD-Student in a DFG-funded research initiative "Physiology and Theory of Neural Networks"
1991 - 93	Studies of Computer Science, University of Ulm, Germany
Jan. 1, 1991	Diploma in Physics (Dipl.Phys.) Faculty of Physics, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany Topic: Stability in Neural Networks Supervisor: Prof Gunther Palm
1983 - 91	Studies of Physics, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany
1982 - 83	Military Service
June 22, 1982	Abitur, Kooperative Gesamtschule Altenkirchen/Westerwald, Germany

Awards and Honors

06/06	UK-Spiketrain Workshop participation grant; University of Newcastle, UK.
02/06	Guest Lecturership granted by the University of Havana, Cuba.
11/05	Travel award by the German Academic Exchange Service.
09/05-08/09	European Community grant IST-2001-35282. "Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States in Neural Architectures (FACETS)". Integrated Project together with 15 other groups in Europe. Co-investigator.
06/05-05/10	EPSRC grant EP/C010841/1. "A Novel Computing Architecture for Cognitive Systems based on the Laminar Microcircuit of the Neocortex (COLAMN)''. Together with 9 groups in the UK and 3 in Europe. Coordinated by CTCN in Plymouth. Co-investigator.
2004	Travel award by the Royal Society.
1999	Excellent Thesis Award by the University Society of Ulm.
July 7, 1998	PhD-Thesis "summa cum laude".
1995	Excellent Paper Award at the First International IEEE Symposium on Intelligence in Neural and Biological Systems 1995.

Teaching Experience

Module: Cognitive Modeling (20h; Master level, second term 2005++)

Module: Neural Computation (20h; Master level, first term 2005++)

Module: Brain-inspired Cognitive Systems (Bachelor level, 2004++, with M Denham)

Module: Models of Language (12h; Guest lecture at University of Havana, Cuba; 03/06)

Workshop: Parallel computing and computer cluster usage (8h; 06/06)

Wiki: Colamn Computer Cluster Wiki: http://www.pion.ac.uk/colamn

Supervision of undergraduate students in seminars and practical excercises in Physics and Computer Science

Supervision of Master and PhD students in Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science

Organization of seminars and colloquia

Numerous talks at seminars, research institutions, and conferences

Professional Service

01/07	Workshop on "Spike Train Metrics" (organiser, with L.Smith, Stirling), University of Plymouth, UK.
2006	Workshop on "Cortical Microcircuits" (organiser) at the Computational Neuroscience Conference, CNS 2006, Edinburgh, UK.
02/06	Heading of section "Cognitive Linguistics" at the ALEG 2006, Havana.
2003	Guest editor of Theory in Bioscience with a Special Issue on "Cell Assemblies"
2002	Workshop "Neural Assemblies" (organiser) at the Computational Neuroscience Meeting, CNS 2002, Chicago.
2001	Workshop "Complex Neural Dynamics" (co-organiser) at the Computational Neuroscience Meeting, CNS 2001, San Francisco and Monterey
Refereeing for Journals	Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Biological Cybernetics, Cognitive Science Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, Journal of Mathematical Biology, Network: Computation in Neural Systems, Neural Networks, Neurocomputing, Proceedings of the Royal Society (London) B
Refereeing f. Conferences	International Conference on Artifical Neural Networks (ICANN), Cognitive Science Society Annual Meetings (CogSci), European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks (ESANN), International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM)
Refereeing f. Organizations	Schweizer National Fond, Niederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)

Major Software Projects

2005+	System administrator of an 80 core Beowulf computer cluster for large-scale simulations of the cortical micro circuit (COLAMN and FACETS projects).
2004+	Neural Network software for Beowulf clusters and SMPs (OS, MPI, threads).
2001-2002	Development of tools for EEG-data analysis and visualisation
1991++	Development of "felix" -- a graphical frontend and simulation environment for neural networks and dynamical systems
1991-1992	Internet communication software
1990-1991	Programming of operating system components for the special purpose parallel computer PAN IV (parallel associative net)