Simons Foundation

Simons Society of Fellows Q&As

October 30, 2023

Fusing Insights from Computer Science and Pure Mathematics By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Michael Chapman.

September 26, 2023

How Do Our Neurons Change When We Encounter New Things? By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Lynn Yap.

August 30, 2023

What Happened Right After the Universe Began? By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Oliver Philcox.

July 31, 2023

Tapping into the Body’s Natural Electricity to Improve Treatments for Neurological Disorders By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Cynthia Steinhardt.

June 28, 2023

Why Do Some Computer Algorithms Perform Better than Expected? By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Sophie Huiberts.

May 30, 2023

How Electrons and Nuclei Work Together to Build Our World By Marcus Banks

April 20, 2023

Finding the Link Between Pain Sensitivity and Opioid Addiction By Marcus Banks

A portait photo of Andre Toussaint.

March 27, 2023

Finding Order in Apparent Randomness By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Morris Ang.

February 27, 2023

What Really Happens When Stars Form? By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Lachlan Lancaster.

January 30, 2023

Quarks, Wormholes and a New Understanding of the Physical World By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Fedor Popov

December 20, 2022

Mapping the Neural Circuits that Guide Worms to Reproduce By Marcus Banks

November 29, 2022

How Our Genes Reassemble Themselves to Get Work Done By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Joan Pulupa

October 25, 2022

Making Electrons Behave In New and Unexpected Ways By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Aravind Devarakonda

August 30, 2022

Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Manifolds Behind Motion By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Timothy Large

July 25, 2022

What the Study of HIV Can Tell Us About the Brain By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Benem Davids

June 29, 2022

The Social Lives of Birds and Mice: A Lens into the Nature of Emotion By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Jennifer Merritt

May 20, 2022

Shedding Light on Wave Physics in Dynamical Metamaterials By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Emanuele Galiffi

April 27, 2022

Computers Have Memories Too By Marcus Banks

March 28, 2022

What Actually Happens When We Experience Inflammation? By Marcus Banks

A portrait photo of Ashley Chui.

February 28, 2022

Why the Ocean Holds the Key to Understanding Climate Change By Marcus Banks

Portrait of Abigail Bodner

January 27, 2022

Unlocking the Secrets of Neural Circuits and Development By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Raphael Cohn

December 21, 2021

Untangling the Feedback Loop Between the Genome, the Brain and Evolution By Marcus Banks

November 29, 2021

The Hidden Mathematical Patterns Behind Seemingly Random Events By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Jiaoyang Huang

October 28, 2021

The Fascinating Symphony at Play Between the Gut’s Neurons, Immune Cells and Microbes By Marcus Banks

September 27, 2021

Elliptic Curves: Simple Equations Still Shrouded in Mystery By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Michele Fornea

August 30, 2021

Building Computer Models That See Everything By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Kathryn Bonnen

July 26, 2021

The Computational Quest to Make Communication Error-Free By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Jaroslaw Blasiok

June 28, 2021

Our Cells Often Behave in Unpredictable and Unknown Ways By Marcus Banks

Naama Aviram in front of evergreens

May 25, 2021

Decoding How We Make Quick Decisions By Marcus Banks

Photo of Michael Waskom

April 27, 2021

Finding Beauty at the Piano and Elegance in Mathematics By Marcus Banks

Sylvain Carpentier in front of a keyboard

March 29, 2021

How Mosquitoes Can Help Us Unpack the Mysteries of Memory and Behavior By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Leah Houri Zeevi

February 24, 2021

Algebraic Complexity Theory: Where the Abstract and the Practical Meet By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Jeroen Zuiddam

January 27, 2021

Solving the Mystery of a Protein’s Shape By Marcus Banks

December 21, 2020

Beyond the Sting: Why You Should Start Paying Attention to Wasps By Marcus Banks

Night time photo of Patrick Kennedy with a reptile by their face

November 30, 2020

Beyond Squares and Triangles: Deciphering the Mysteries of Complex Shapes By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Aleksander Doan

October 27, 2020

Why Our Ever-Evolving Genes Sometimes Make Us Sick By Marcus Banks

September 22, 2020

Think We Already Know Everything About Electrons? Think Again By Marcus Banks

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) image of magnetic adatoms deposited on topological superconductor candidate PbTaSe2. Inset: a 2D enlarged view. Each magnetic adatom can host a Majorana zero mode acting as a topological qubit which has the potential to be used for robust quantum computation

August 25, 2020

Understanding How the Brain Works, One Model at a Time By Marcus Banks

Portrait photo of Robert Yang

July 10, 2020

Heavy-Metal Mysteries in the Midst of Exploding Stars By Marcus Banks

neutron stars colliding

June 22, 2020

The Neural Basis for Number Sense By Marcus Banks

Pooja Vishwanathan

March 17, 2020

Zebras and the Environmental Pressures on Social Behavior By Christina Reed

January 27, 2020

Fighting Fish Offer Clues in How the Sexes See the World By John Pavlus

red and blue siamese fighting fish

December 12, 2019

Keeping an Eye on the Brain as a System By John Pavlus

Portrait photo of Mariana Cardoso

December 05, 2019

Visualizing Physics at the Nano-Scale By John Pavlus

Dorri Halbertal in front of a tree