Dr. Chris Eliasmith

Chris is the co-inventor of the Neural Engineering Framework (NEF), the Neural Engineering Objects (Nengo) software environment, and the Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA), all of which are dedicated to understanding how the brain works. His team has developed the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network (Spaun) which is the most realistic functional brain simulation yet developed. He won the prestigious 2015 NSERC Polanyi Award for his research.

Chris is the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience. At the University of Waterloo Chris is jointly appointed in the Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering departments, as well as being cross-appointed to the Computer Science department. Chris has supervised students in each of these departments as well as in Biology and Psychology.

Chris is the director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN) at the University of Waterloo. The Centre brings together researchers across many faculties as diverse as math, engineering, arts and science who are interested in computational and theoretical models of neural systems.‍

The Computational Neuroscience Research Group (CNRG) is Chris’ research lab which is associated with the CTN. The CNRG site contains the most up-to-date information on Chris’ team’s research.

Chris has published two books: How to Build a Brain (Oxford University Press) and his seminal Neural Engineering.

When he is not pushing the boundaries of theoretical neuroscience forward or hanging out with his team at the CNRG, Chris spends time with his family and occasionally straps on the blades for a game of hockey near his home in Waterloo. He has a Bacon-Erdos number of 7.