Alex Williams

Asst Prof @NYU_CNS + Project Leader @FlatironCCN studying Computational + Statistical Neuroscience.

[Alex Williams @ItsNeuronal]

Here is a recording of my talk @CogCompNeuro last week on quantifying similarity in neural recordings

Very much enjoyed the Keynote + Tutorial format for the conference. Links to our tutorial notebook below 👇

https://t.co/LdGTDOdBb7

[The Transmitter @_TheTransmitter]

Being able to record from large neuron populations has led to myriad methods to compare them, writes Alex Williams @ItsNeuronal. But we still grapple with how to convert measures of likeness into better mechanistic understanding.
https://t.co/Qq4W5qmSiU

[Jonathan Pillow @jpillowtime]

Great blog post from @ItsNeuronal on the interpretation of Log-Likelihood Ratios for model comparison, including a (new to me!) result on how to obtain a significance threshold for declaring one model better than another:

https://t.co/lMCHaYXA5x

[Victor Geadah @vgeadah]

Neural dynamics are complex, varying in time and across experimental conditions.

🎉 Excited to share our #NeurIPS2025 work: we introduce Conditionally Linear Dynamical Systems (CLDS) as an interpretable and flexible model of neural dynamics.

🧵[1/9]

[Neuroscience at NYU Langone Health @NYULH_Neuro]

Congrats to our very own Ipshita Zutshi on being awarded the Peter & Patricia Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience!! #SfN25

[Ro Khanna @RoKhanna]

Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?

[Diana Cai @dianarycai]

The application for a research fellowship at the Flatiron Institute in the Center for Computational Math is now live! This includes positions for ML and stats.

The deadline is Dec 1. Links below with more details.

[Pynapple @thepynapple]

⏳ Deadline is next Friday! Apply now to join our #SfN25 workshop on pynapple & nemos. Learn to analyze & model neural data using software developed at @FlatironInst. Accommodations + meals included! 👉 https://t.co/ES5JmoYK5L

[Osita Nwanevu @OsitaNwanevu]

We don't know how good we have it, in historical terms. That means both that we're closer to a better country than we feel, and also that things could get worse than we appreciate.

[Amin Nejatbakhsh @aminejat]

Excited to announce that our paper on "Comparing noisy neural population dynamics using optimal transport distances" has been selected for an oral presentation in #ICLR2025 (1.8% top papers). Check the thread for paper details (0/n).

Presentation info: https://t.co/31IcGuWSiA.

[Scott Linderman @scott_linderman]

Excited to share our JOSS paper (https://t.co/O5CbuhkCo3) and code (https://t.co/X7HdXqLg4k)! Special thanks to our reviewers — Dynamax v1.0 is much improved thanks to their feedback!

[UAW Region 6 @uawregion6]

Thousands of UAW members are international workers who conduct critical research to advance lifesaving treatments for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more. Hear from international scholars across the country why they're taking action on 4/8 to #KillTheCuts.

[Alex Williams @ItsNeuronal]

@GeoCalhoun520 The implication of that quote -- which you cite without any serious interrogation -- is that 70% of funds going out of NIH do not go to direct research costs.

How much is this IDC cut projected to save NIH? Is it 55% (i.e. 70 - 15) of their disbursed funds? Is it even close?

[Alex Williams @ItsNeuronal]

@GeoCalhoun520 Looking forward to you correcting the record then on "70% of the money that is supposed to go to R&D is siphoned off" because that's flat wrong.

[UAW @UAW]

UAW Region 4 CAP mobilization happening TODAY: members across the region are calling key Senators and Congresspeople to demand "No Cuts to NIH Funding!"

An attack on one of our members is an attack on all of us!

[Pynapple @thepynapple]

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first and second Pynapple & @nemos_neuro workshops of the year at @FlatironCCN , NYC! Stay tuned for future event announcements. #EastCoast

[Alex Williams @ItsNeuronal]

@mbeisen @dorkmo Willing to grant that a fraction of indirects may get used for subscriptions (though I'd love to see a source!)

Regardless your 4.5 bln figure feels misleading.

This ~75% cut to indirects is on the order of ~4 billion. I doubt that 75% of indirects go to subscriptions!

[Andrew Gordon Wilson @andrewgwils]

To save some suspense, industry is not doing a lot of curiosity driven fundamental research.

[Jay Giri @jaygirimd]

🧵 Many “hot takes” about the reduction of @NIH indirect grant costs to 15%.

Let’s lay out the facts about the university grant management process & accounting. And then use this to project likely short and longer term impacts of the policy.