Principal Investigator

michale-fee

Michale S. Fee, PhD

Glenn V. and Phyllis F. Dorflinger Professor of Neuroscience
Department Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

43 Vassar Street, Office: 46-5133
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Phone: (617) 324-0173
Email: [email protected]
Connect: Google Scholar / PubMed

Short Biography

Michale Fee is Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. His lab works to understand the neural mechanisms of sequence generation and learning using the songbird as a model organism.

Michale received a B.E. with honors in Engineering Physics from the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan (1985). He received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University (1992), where he carried out his thesis work in the laboratory of Steven Chu. From 1992–1996 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories in the Biological Computation Research Department, where he worked in the laboratory of David Kleinfeld on cortical circuitry in the vibrissa system of the rat underlying the sense of touch. In 1996, Michale became a permanent member of technical staff (PI) at Bell Labs, at which time he began working on the mechanisms of vocal sequence generation in the songbird. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT as Associate Professor of Neuroscience.

Additional Information

Education
  • Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1992, Advisor: Steven Chu
  • B.S. in Engineering Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985
Employment
  • Department Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 2021 – Present
  • Associate Department Head for Education, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 7/2012-present
  • Glenn V. and Phyllis F. Dorflinger Professor of Neuroscience, 2012-present
  • Full Professor of Computational and Systems Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 2008-present
  • Associate Professor of Computational and Systems Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 2003-2008
  • Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, 2003-present
  • Member of Technical Staff, Biological Computation Research Department, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, 1996-2003
  • Postdoctoral Member of Technical Staff, Biological Computation Research Department, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1992-1996
Additional Positions Held
  • Simons Investigator, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain, 2017-ongoing
  • Faculty, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Program, MIT, 2009-present
  • Faculty, MIT-Harvard Program in Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology, 2011-present
  • Adjunct Professor, Molecular Biology Department, Princeton University, 2000-2003
Honors and Awards
  • MIT Fundamental Science Investigator Award, 2017
  • MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education, 2016
  • BCS Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2015
  • Lawrence Katz Prize for Innovative Research in Neuroscience, 2012
  • Dart Scholar, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 2003
  • Scholarship, Society of General Physiologists, 1994
  • Award for outstanding undergraduate research, Sigma Xi, 1986
  • Outstanding Achievement Award in Engineering Physics, 1986
Research Supervision

Undergraduate Students Mentored

  • Katherine E. Gravel, 2018
  • Jacklyn Konopka, spring 2011
  • Jakob Foerster, 2010
  • Eric Lubell, spring 2008 – 2009
  • Denise Ichinco, fall 2007 – 2009
  • Emilianne Repak, fall 2006, spring 2007
  • Adam Packer, 2006
  • Jonathan Karr, 2005

Masters Students Mentored

  • Michaela Ennis, 2016-2017
  • Husain Danish, 2013-2016
  • Lena Veit, 2010

Ph.D. Students Mentored

  • Aditya Nair, 2019 – present
  • Joseph Scherrer, 2018 – present
  • Emily Mackevicius, 2011 – 2019
  • Galen Lynch, 2011 – 2020
  • Michael Stetner, 2009 – 2017
  • Tatsuo Okubo, 2008 – 2015
  • Dmitriy Aronov, 2005 – 2010
  • Aaron Andalman, 2004 – 2010

Postdoctoral Researchers Mentored

  • Jörgen Kornfeld, 2019 – 2021
  • Galen Lynch, 2019 – present
  • Nader Nikbakht, 2017 – Present
  • Maya Bronfeld, 2012 – 2015
  • Anusha Narayan, 2011 – 2015
  • Yael Mandelblat-Cerf, 2011 – 2013, Research Scientist, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
  • Liora Las, 2006 – 2011, Research Scientist, Weizmann Institute, Israel
  • Jesse Goldberg, 2005 – 2011, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
  • Michael Long, 2003 – 2009, Associate Professor, NYU Medical School
  • Timothy Gardner, 2004-2008, Associate Professor, Boston University
  • Bence Ölveczky, 2004-2007, Full Professor, Harvard University
  • Alex Kozhevnikov, 2002-2006, Assistant Professor of Physics, Penn State University
  • Anthony Leonardo, 2001-2003, Group Leader at Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Richard Hahnloser, 2002-2003, Full Professor for Systems Neurosciences at Univ. of Zurich
Professional Services

MIT Internal Service

  • Associate Department Head for Education, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2012-ongoing
  • Chair, BCS Education Committee, 2012-ongoing
  • Systems Track Leader, Committee on Graduate Admissions, 2006-ongoing
  • Chair, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Faculty Search Committee, 2017
  • Chair, Computational Neuroscience Faculty Search Committee, 2014, 2015, 2016
  • Reviewer, Simons Center for the Social Brain Seed Grants, 2015
  • Chair, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Faculty Search Committee, 2013
  • Chair, McGovern Institute Faculty Search Committee, 2012
  • MIT Alumni Funds Evaluation Committee, 2012
  • Member, BCS Department Education Committee, 2009-2011
  • Member, MIT Committee on Discipline, 2006-2008
  • HHMI Graduate Fellowship Selection Committee, 2010
  • Poitras Fellowship Selection Committee, 2011, 2014
  • MIT Alumni Outreach – Lectures
    • MIT Alumni Presentation, Commencement Day, 2012
    • MIT Club, Princeton, 2011
    • MIT on the Road, San Francisco, 2008
  • Center for Talented Youth, Family Academic Program Science and Technology Series, 2011 Keynote Address

External Service

  • Scientific Advisory Board for the International Brain Lab, Simons Foundation Appointee, 2018-2019
  • Scientific Review Advisory Panel, HHMI, 2015-ongoing
  • Neuroscience Training Committee (SfN), 2017-ongoing
  • Ad-hoc member NINDS Board of Scientific Counselors, 2014
  • Midterm Review Advisory Panel, HHMI, Janelia Farm, 2011, 2012
  • Lecturer and Discussant, Professional Development Workshop on Teaching Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience Meeting, 2010
  • Ad-hoc study section reviewer for NIH, 2010-2011
  • Reviewer, Grant Study Section of NIH/NSF Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) program, 2006, 2007
  • Scientific Review Panel, King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2008
  • Scientific Review Panel, Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience, NSF/NIH, 2002
  • Scientific Advisory Board, National Alliance for Autism Research, 2002
Teaching

MIT Teaching

  • Course instructor, Introduction to Neural Computation (9.40), 2014 – ongoing
  • Lecturer, Systems Neuroscience Graduate Core Course (9.011), 2004–ongoing
  • Lecturer: What is Intelligence? (9.S915), 2011, 2016
  • Course instructor, Introduction to Computational Neuroscience (9.29), 2004-2012

External Teaching

  • Lecturer, Princeton University, NEU501A Graduate Core Course, 2017
  • Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA
    • Co-Director, Methods in Computational Neuroscience Course, 2013-2017
    • Lecturer, Neuroinformatics Course, 1997-2007
    • Instructor, Neural Systems and Behavior Course, 2005
    • Lecturer, Methods in Computation Neuroscience Course, 2002-2011
  • Rockefeller University: Lecturer, Course on Neurobiology and Brain Repair, 2006, 2008, 2009
  • Other: Lecturer, FENS-IBRO-SfN Neuroscience Summer School, Bertinoro, Italy, 2011
Publications

For a list of all published papers, please visit our Publications page.

Patents
  • A Flexible and Implantable Glucose Fuel Cell”, by MS Fee, J Kedzierski, JB Muldavin, BI Rapoport, R Sarpeshkar and T Thorsen, Patents Pending
  • Acousto-optic Monitoring and Imaging in a Depth Sensitive Manner, MS Fee and MJ Schnitzer (2002), US. Patent # 7,023,558
  • System and Method for Optical Scanning, MS Fee, F Helmchen, DW Tank, W Denk (2002), US. Patent # 6,977,733
  • Predictive Probe Stabilization Relative to Subject Movement, MS Fee (2002), US. Patent # 6,366,803
  • Interferometric Probe Stabilization Relative to Subject Movement, MS Fee (2004), US. Patent # 6,680,780
  • Speech Processing Technique for Use In Speech Recognition and Speech Coding, MS Fee, PP Mitra (2001) US. Patent # 6,263,306
Fee Laboratory