Partha P. Mitra

Professor

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1993

mitra@cshl.edu | (516) 367-6942

A theoretical physicist by training, my research is centered around intelligent machines. I do both theoretical and experimental work. The theoretical work is focussed on analyzing distributed/networked algorithms in the context of control theory and machine learning, using tools from statistical physics. My lab is involved in brain-wide mesoscale circuit mapping in the Mouse as well as in the Marmoset. An organizing idea behind my research is that there may be common underlying mathematical principles that constrain evolved biological systems and human-engineered systems.

Partha Mitra is interested in understanding intelligent machines that are products of biological evolution (particularly animal brains), with the basic hypothesis that common underlying principles may govern these “wet” intelligent machines and the “dry” intelligent machines that are transforming the present economy. Dr Mitra initiated the idea of brain-wide mesoscale circuit mapping, and his laboratory is involved in carrying out such mapping in the Mouse (http://mouse.brainarchitecture.org) and the Marmoset (in collaboration with Japanese and Australian scientists at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and Monash University).

Dr Mitra spent ten years as a member of the theory department at Bell Laboratories and holds a visiting professorship at IIT Madras where he is helping establish the Center for Computational Brain Research. He has an active theoretical research program in machine learning and control theory, wheren he is using tools from statistical physics to analyze the performance of distributed/networked algorithms in the “thermodynamic” limit of many variables.