Andreas Tolias, Ph.D.

Andreas Tolias is a co-founding director of the Enigma Project and professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in Electrical Engineering and affiliations with Bio X, the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Stanford’s Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. His work combines large-scale neural recordings with machine learning to decode the brain’s algorithms for perception and cognition and to design neuro-informed artificial intelligence that is smarter, more efficient, and inherently interpretable.

Before joining Stanford, Tolias founded and directed the Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence at Baylor College of Medicine, where he held the Brown Endowed Chair. He received a B.A. and M.A. in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge, a Ph.D. in systems and computational neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and completed post doctoral training in neuroscience and machine learning at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. He has led DARPA- and IARPA-funded consortia that produced the largest paired functional connectomics dataset and has been a pioneer of brain digital twin models – all in service of decoding the brain’s computational blueprint for intelligence.

Tolias’s goal is to push the frontier of NeuroAI, driving advances in next generation computing and AI driven precision therapies for brain disorders. His honors include the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, Beckman Young Investigator Award, McKnight Scholar Award, McKnight Memory & Cognitive Disorders Award, and the Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award.