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Richard Gao

@rdgao.bsky.social
1.4K followers 596 following 294 posts

W1 (Assistant) Professor of CS & Math at Goethe University Frankfurt. AI x neuroscience. 🌊 www.gao-unit.com

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Reposted by Richard Gao
Alireza Modirshanechi @modirshanechi.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Excited to share that I'll be starting as a junior professor and Emmy Noether awardee at the University of Göttingen this October! 🥳 🚀 I'll be hiring #phd students and #postdoc across #machinelearning, #neuroscience and #cogsci: modirlab.github.io/open-positio... Please spread the word! 🙏
PhD ad informationPostdoc ad informationInformation about Göttingen and equal opportunities
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
🧪🔭🧠🤖 X 🥐🥖🧀🍷 Contributions using or developing simulators across the sciences x ML are welcome!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
mfw I see a student report these days with actual human typos and a complete disregard for formatting consistency:
static.klipy.com
Jeremiah Johnson: Well Done!
ALT: Jeremiah Johnson: Well Done!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
extremely underrated paper and story
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
this paper encapsulated some of our (my) really great times in Tübingen, and it's truly about the friends you make along the way. also, I think the cool thing about this is that if you replace "timescales" with any other signature of brain activity, it still outlines a coherent research program
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
it took me so damn long to write this thing that the field actually became real in the 2.5 years hooooly anyway, here's another book: 100% grass-fed human-written down to every single letter, though probably for AI consumption only at this point. www.rdgao.com/blog/2026/06...
rdgao.com
Beyond #NeuroAI, we need #AI4Neuro—and we’re going to suck at it (at first). [Part 3]
The fundamental principle of using AI for science is that it can help us do some things extremely efficiently, but it usually requires an ‘oracle’ or verifier. I’m of the opinion that we simply don’t ...
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
the holy trinity: beach tapas and ephys reproducibility
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
this is literally the most beautiful thing I've ever seen
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Reposted by Richard Gao
Neuromatch @neuromatch.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
We are building out a new curriculum day for our #ComputationalNeuroscience course focused on time series analysis and #SignalProcessing. We're looking for 5-10 volunteer contributors w #CompNeuro & #DSP experience. This is a #volunteer position. Learn more & apply: neuromatch.io/volunteer/
Real expertise.
Real students.
Real impact. 

Volunteer to create Computational Neuroscience course material on time series analysis and signal processing.
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Reposted by Richard Gao
Mattia Chini @mattiachini.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
New paper out in PLOS Computational Biology! We introduce iSTTC, a robust method to estimate intrinsic neural timescales from single-unit recordings. Congrats to Irina Pochinok for leading the project! Package: github.com/iinnpp/isttc Paper: journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
github.com
GitHub - iinnpp/isttc: iSTTC: intrinsic neural timescales estimation
iSTTC: intrinsic neural timescales estimation. Contribute to iinnpp/isttc development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
For this year's Neuromatch Computation Neuroscience course, the Curriculum Team is adding a new Day 🥁🥁🥁 Time series analysis and signal processing! We're looking for 5-10 content contributors with relevant neuro+DSP experience for various tasks: co-Day Lead, video, slides, code tutorials, etc.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
get paid to teach and learn about computational neuroscience (and other cool topics), highly recommend. If you're considering it, don't hesitate, just go for it!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Once you get past the first 5 minutes of me bumbling around clearly in need of media training, we settle into a nice groove talking about fitting mechanistic models, ML/AI for neuroscience, underconstrainedness vs. degeneracy, and its potential benefits for biology (plus some good chuckles).
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I woke up today and the Detroit Pistons are first in the East. what year is this??
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Natalie Schaworonkow @nschawor.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂 looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible. science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
get in before the spots run out, otherwise put your money in the betting pool
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I will die on this hill over and over until it becomes a mountain
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
I'm starting to think the argument between low vs. high dimensional neural activity literally just comes from plotting the PCs in linear vs. log y-scale
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
I think this by definition makes it the best workshop at neurips
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Reposted by Richard Gao
Erin Grant @eringrant.me · 06/12/2025
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS @ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year: www.gao-unit.com/join-us/ If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply! I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
free startup idea: AI to lubricate the university administrative procedural system
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
hey I'm reposting this for no reason at all today... www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
cell.com
Processes and measurements: a framework for understanding neural oscillations in field potentials
Various neuroscientific theories maintain that brain oscillations are important for neuronal computation, but opposing views claim that these macroscale dynamics are ‘exhaust fumes’ of more relevant p...
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Machine Learning in Science @mackelab.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Our work on training biophysical models with Jaxley is now out in @natmethods.nature.com. Led by @deismic.bsky.social, with @philipp.hertie.ai, @ppjgoncalves.bsky.social & @jakhmack.bsky.social et al. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Jaxley: differentiable simulation enables large-scale training of detailed biophysical models of neural dynamics - Nature Methods
Jaxley is a versatile platform for biophysical modeling in neuroscience. It allows efficiently simulating large-scale biophysical models on CPUs, GPUs and TPUs. Model parameters can be optimized with ...
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year @erc.europa.eu funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study #culturalEvolution as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉 hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... 🙏Please share!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
what will we achieve first: 1. world peace 2. off-ball screens in pickup basketball ?
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
this is the kind of stuff one could only dream of in primates
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
sounds about right
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JoCNForum @jocnforum.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
New post in @jocnforum.bsky.social by Early Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social: "Principles for proper peer review" doi.org/10.21428/8e6...
doi.org
Principles for proper peer review
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Manuel Brenner and I managed to organize this workshop not knowing we were gonna end up being new neighbors this month. The lineup speaks for itself. There were some last minute cancellations so we jumped in to fill their big shoes and will talk about the future directions of the new labs too!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I've been waiting some years to make this joke and now it’s real: I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job! I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗
media.tenor.com
a man wearing a white shirt and tie smiles in front of a window
ALT: a man wearing a white shirt and tie smiles in front of a window
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Mattia Chini @mattiachini.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
🚨 2 Postdoc openings in Neuroscience – Liège, Belgium 🚨 We are recruiting for a project on brain development & autism that includes: ⚡ Neuropixels recordings ⚡ Opto/chemo ⚡ Behavior ⚡ Neural network modeling If you know someone, tag them or RT for visibility! 🙏 www.fens.org/careers/job-...
fens.org
2 Postdoc Positions in Systems Neuroscience - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
ES IST WIEDER DENNIS SCHROEDER
media.tenor.com
a basketball player wearing a jersey that says deutschland on it
ALT: a basketball player wearing a jersey that says deutschland on it
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sbi - Simulation-based inference @sbi-devs.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
From hackathon to release: sbi v0.25 is here! 🎉 What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯 1/7 🧵
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
arguably the most important component of AI for neuroscience: data, and its usability
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Roxana Zeraati @roxana-zeraati.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
My PhD journey has officially come to end with a Summa Cum Laude, thanks to all the amazing people who’ve supported me along the way, especially my advisors Anna Levina and @engeltatiana.bsky.social! Which apparently coincided with graduation from a witchcraft and wizardry school 😉 #neuroskyence
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
asked Claude to brainstorm for a new blogpost given two previous ones and it immediately starts talking like me. let's just say it's very...disconcerting. also TIL I'm a snarky asshole lol.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
some advice I got years ago: if you get lots of questions after your talk, even if they sound mean (they're usually not), it means you did work that people actually bought into and can engage with.
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bthirion.bsky.social @bthirion.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Inria is opening a Junior Professor Position (tenure track) at Saclay on the topic of Cognitive Computational Neuroscience. This junior professorship is part of the development of computational cognitive neuroscience within @univparissaclay.bsky.social #Neurospin @neuropsi.bsky.social and #inria
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Machine Learning in Science @mackelab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Excited to present our work on compositional SBI for time series at #ICLR2025 tomorrow! If you're interested in simulation-based inference for time series, come chat with Manuel Gloeckler or Shoji Toyota at Poster #420, Saturday 10:00–12:00 in Hall 3. 📰: arxiv.org/abs/2411.02728
arxiv.org
Compositional simulation-based inference for time series
Amortized simulation-based inference (SBI) methods train neural networks on simulated data to perform Bayesian inference. While this strategy avoids the need for tractable likelihoods, it often requir...
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Michael W. Kraus @mwkraus.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
I am teaching my phd writing workshop course this quarter, question: are there any words/phrases said to you by an advisor/mentor that stuck with you, were memorable, or particularly helpful? If so please reply below!
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
"but the AI will replace scientists and solve physics"
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Auguste Schulz @auschulz.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
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Auguste Schulz @auschulz.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Thanks so much for the shout-out, and congrats on your exciting work!! 🎉 🙂 Also, a good reminder to share that our work is now out in Cell Reports 🙏🎊 ⬇️ www.cell.com/cell-reports...
cell.com
Modeling conditional distributions of neural and behavioral data with masked variational autoencoders
Schulz et al. demonstrate how neural encoding and decoding can be cast as computing conditional distributions and how to modify variational autoencoders (VAEs) to calculate such distributions. The pro...
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Ai2 @ai2.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Ever wonder how LLM developers choose their pretraining data? It’s not guesswork— all AI labs create small-scale models as experiments, but the models and their data are rarely shared. DataDecide opens up the process: 1,050 models, 30k checkpoints, 25 datasets & 10 benchmarks 🧵
Plot shows the relationship between compute used to predict a ranking of datasets and how accurately that ranking reflects performance at the target (1B) scale of models pretrained from scratch on those datasets.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
build your foundation model on this guy's brain. no line attractor for fear, only fixed point for idgaf.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
legitimate reason to start drinking on a Friday afternoon
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Auguste Schulz @auschulz.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Looking forward to presenting our work on Latent Diffusion for Neural Spiking data tonight—Poster 1-108 & experience discussions on scaling in neuroscience firsthand at the foundation model workshop, where I'll talk both about our work on masked VAEs & latent diffusion for neural & behavioral data
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
sending everybody to this @patrickmineault.bsky.social blogpost because my rant on the apparent hubris in neuroscience is ... not as nicely worded. www.neuroai.science/p/what-are-f...
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Tiago Peixoto @tiago.skewed.de · 12/03/2025
🚨 New paper on ArXiv: “Uncertainty quantification and posterior sampling for network reconstruction” TL;DR; We present an efficient method to sample the entire ensemble of possible network reconstructions that are compatible with an indirect observation, e.g. a dynamics. Short thread: 1/N
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