Martin Spacek
I graduated with a BSc in Engineering Physics in 2001 from the University of Alberta. I joined the lab in 2002 as a research assistant. In 2003 I entered the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at UBC and now I'm a PhD candidate. I hope to graduate in 2011.
I'm interested in networks of all kinds, but most of all, biological neuronal networks. My thesis topic is on correlations, network states, and spike timing in cortex. I think there's a lot to be said in doing both experimental neurophysiology and theoretical work, so I strive to do both.
Here's my SfN 2007 poster: Accounting for network states in cortex: are (local) pairwise correlations sufficient?
And here's my Cosyne 2006 poster: Heterogenous firing rate dependencies in simultaneously recorded neural populations in cat area 17
Here's my personal homepage.
Here's my CV.
You can email me at mspacek (make sure to append @mail.ubc.ca).
My lab phone number is +1-604-875-4555 ext 66282.
local links
Python
I'm a big fan of the Python programming language. It's fully object oriented. It's a scripting language, so it doesn't require compiling. If you need the speed of a compiled language, you can drop down into C or Fortran. It can interface with just about any library ever written, in almost any language. It's free, open source, cross platform, and widely used. And best of all, it has an extremely intuitive syntax that "fits your brain", making it easy to learn, and easy to remember.
Python, in combination with the NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib, and IPython packages makes a great replacement for MatLab (the expensive, closed-source numerical computing environment and "programming language"). I use Python for data analysis, modelling, and visual stimulus generation. Even this website runs on Python!
dimstim
dimstim is our custom written visual stimulus software. It's freely available here.
LaTeX
For reference, here is the LaTeX source file for my SfN 2007 poster. I compiled it straight to PDF with PDFTex, using the MikTeX distribution in Windows.
Firefox
Firefox 3's tabs are too short, which makes them hard to click. To make them taller, add the following to your userChrome.css file:
/* Increase tab height */
.tabbrowser-tabs *|tab {
height: 24px !important;
}Here's a site with some examples for userChrome.css