Thesis Director: Prof. P. D. Barth,
\r\nBiotechnology and Bioengineering doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11393
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
The talk is jointly organized by the EPFL AI Center and the AIMM Lab as part of the AI for Science seminar series.
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\r\nHosting professor: Prof. Charlotte Bunne (AIMM)
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\r\nRegistration with an EPFL email is required: HERE.
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\r\n! This event is restricted to EPFL members. The Zoom live stream is also restricted and requires authentication with an EPFL email address for access. !
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\r\nTitle
\r\nAI for Science at Anthropic: Building Tools for Scientific Discovery
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\r\nAbstract
\r\nThis talk will explore Anthropic's approach to developing AI systems that can meaningfully accelerate scientific research. I'll discuss our AI for Science program, share examples of how researchers are using Claude across domains from molecular biology to materials science, and outline our thinking on what makes AI genuinely useful for working scientists. I'll also touch on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and how it enables integration with scientific tools and data sources.
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\r\nBio
\r\nJonah Cool leads life sciences partnerships and deployment at Anthropic, where he works directly with researchers, academic institutions, and biotech startups to apply frontier AI to scientific discovery. His focus is on understanding where large language models can meaningfully accelerate biological research and building the partnerships, evaluation frameworks, and deployment practices to make that happen responsibly.
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\r\nBefore Anthropic, Jonah served as VP of Science & Partnerships at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he launched the Single Cell Biology program and led cross-sector technology development spanning biotech, academia, and philanthropy. He holds a PhD in cell biology (AHA fellow) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute (NIH fellow). His career has moved across academia, biotech startups, large-scale philanthropy, and now frontier AI, connected by a consistent focus on finding the leverage points where new technology can change how science gets done.
Are you a researcher, a practitioner, or a start-up with an innovative idea for a one- or two-year research project in the field of digitalisation in education?
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\r\nBeLEARN will host its annual Barcamp event on 5 May. Join us and develop your project ideas together with other interested parties and submit a project proposal.
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\r\nThis year's Barcamp will take place on 5 May.
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\r\nRegister on BeLEARN-Connect until 15 April.
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\r\nFind more information and step-by-step process on the Barcamp page.
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\r\nKey Dates for 2026
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\r\n• Barcamp registration deadline: 15 April 2026
\r\n• Barcamp Day 1: 5 May 2026
\r\n• Barcamp Day 2 (optional): 21 May 2026
\r\n• Proposal submission deadline: 5 June 2026
\r\n• Funding decision: 15 July 2026
\r\n• Project start: January 2027 (or upon agreement)
In rodents, the whisker (vibrissal) system supports behaviors ranging from locomotor guidance and object exploration to social interactions and anemotaxis (flow sensing). This versatility makes whisker-dependent behavior a powerful lens on sensorimotor control. The first part of the talk describes use of the whisker system to study embodied sensing and closed-loop sensorimotor control. On the sensory side, I will present models of whisker mechanics and signal encoding by primary sensory neurons. On the motor side, I will describe models of whisker musculature and emerging insights into the circuits that generate whisker movements. I will then outline key challenges in linking sensing to movement within an integrated closed-loop framework. The second part of the talk will highlight how whiskers interact with moving air. Bending and vibration encode direction and speed, including regimes where vibrations emerge at subcritical Reynolds numbers through coupled structural nonlinearities and fluid-structure interactions.
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