Christopher C Rodgers, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurosurgery
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia
Positions
Assistant Professor (2022 - present)
Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Biology, Emory College of Arts and Sciences (courtesy appointment)
Program Faculty, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Emory University
Program Faculty and Adjunct Professor, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, Emory & Georgia Tech
Program Faculty, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Undergraduate Program, Emory
Selected Presentation: GTNeuro seminar series, Georgia Tech
Postdoctoral Fellow & Associate Research Scientist (2014 - 2021)
Columbia University, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute
Selected Postdoctoral Publication:
Rodgers CC†, Nogueira R, Pil BC, Greeman EA, Park JM, Hong YK, Fusi S, Bruno RM†. Sensorimotor strategies and neuronal representations for shape discrimination. Neuron 109 (2021). Original preprint: bioRxiv (2020).
Education
PhD, University of California, Berkeley (2007 - 2013)
PhD, Neuroscience.
Designated Emphasis in Computational Science and Engineering
Thesis: Rule-encoding neurons in prefrontal and auditory cortex of rats performing a task similar to the cocktail party problem
Selected Graduate Publication:
Rodgers CC and DeWeese MR. Neural correlates of task switching in prefrontal cortex and primary auditory cortex in a novel stimulus selection task for rodents. Neuron 82:5 (2014).
A “Preview” article highlighted this work:
Odoemene O and Churchland AK. Listening for the right sounds. Neuron 82:5 (2014).
BEng, McGill University (2004 - 2007)
Bachelor’s of Engineering, Electrical Engineering, with Great Distinction
Honors Thesis: The neuron modeled as a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter
Honors: James McGill Award, British Association Medal
Purdue University (2002 - 2004)
Major: Electrical Engineering
Transferred course credit to McGill University in 2004.
Publications
Preprints and manuscripts
Barbosa J, Proville R, Rodgers CC, Ostojic S, Boubenec Y. Flexible selection of task-relevant features through across-area population gating. bioRxiv (2022), and submitted for peer review.
Park JM, Hong YK*, Rodgers CC*, Dahan JB, Schmidt ERE, Bruno RM. Deep and superficial layers of the primary somatosensory cortex are critical for whisker-based texture discrimination in mice. bioRxiv (2020), and submitted for peer review.
* equal contribution
Published peer-reviewed papers
Nogueira R, Rodgers CC, Bruno RM, Fusi S. The geometry of cortical representations of touch in rodents. Available online ahead of print at Nature Neuroscience (2023). Original preprint: bioRxiv (2021).
A “Research Highlight” article highlighted this work:
Rogers J. Flexible and generalizable representations of touch. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 24:132 (2023).
Rodgers CC. A detailed behavioral, videographic, and neural dataset on object recognition in mice. Scientific Data 9:620 (2022). Original preprint: bioRxiv (2021).
Schmidt ERE, Zhao HT, Park JM, Dipoppa M, Monsalve-Mercado MM, Dahan JB, Rodgers CC, Lejeune A, Hillman EMC, Miller KD, Bruno RM, Polleux F. A human-specific modifier of cortical connectivity and circuit function. Nature 599:7886 (2021). Preprint available at bioRxiv (2020).
Rodgers CC†, Nogueira R, Pil BC, Greeman EA, Park JM, Hong YK, Fusi S, Bruno RM†. Sensorimotor strategies and neuronal representations for shape discrimination. Neuron 109 (2021). Preprint available at bioRxiv (2020).
† co-corresponding author
Jas M, Achakulvisut T, Idrizović A, Acuna D, Antalek M, Marques V, Odland T, Garg RP, Agrawal M, Umegaki Y, Foley P, Fernandes H, Harris D, Li B, Pieters O, Otterson S, De Toni G, Rodgers C, Dyer E, Hamalainen M, Kording K, Ramkumar P. Pyglmnet: Python implementation of elastic-net regularized generalized linear models. J Open Source Software 5:47 (2020).
Insanally M, Carcea I, Field R, Rodgers CC, DePasquale B, Rajan K, DeWeese M, Albanna B, Froemke RC. Spike-timing-dependent ensemble encoding by non-classically responsive cortical neurons. eLife 8:e42409 (2019).
Hong YK, Lacefield CO, Rodgers CC, Bruno RM. Sensation, movement and learning in the absence of barrel cortex. Nature 561:7724 (2018).
Sohl-Dickstein J, Teng S, Gaub BM, Rodgers CC, Li C, DeWeese MR, Harper NS. A device for human ultrasonic echolocation. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 62:6 (2015).
Featured in Popular Science (February 9th, 2015).
Rodgers CC† and DeWeese MR. Neural correlates of task switching in prefrontal cortex and primary auditory cortex in a novel stimulus selection task for rodents. Neuron 82:5 (2014).
† corresponding author
A “Preview” article highlighted this work: Odoemene O and Churchland AK. Listening for the right sounds. Neuron 82:5 (2014).
Garcia S, Guarino D, Jaillet F, Jennings T, Propper R, Rautenberg PL, Rodgers CC, Sobolev A, Wachtler T, Yger P, Davison AP. Neo: an object model for handling electrophysiology data in multiple formats. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 8:10 (2014).
Invited articles
Rodgers CC, Albanna BF, Insanally MN. Decisions, decisions: Making sense of non-sensory neurons. Current Biology 31 (2021).
Conference proceedings
Li C, Kim SH, Rodgers C, Choi H, Wu A. One-hot generalized linear model for switching brain state discovery. Currently under review at Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS, 2023).
Nogueira R*, Rodgers CC*, Fusi S, Bruno RM. Sensorimotor strategies and neuronal representations of whisker-based object recognition in mouse barrel cortex. Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, CCN (2019).
* equal contribution
Park J, Rodgers C, Hong YK, Dahan J, Bruno R. Primary somatosensory cortex is essential for texture discrimination but not object detection in mice. IBRO Reports 6:S550 (2019).
Teng S, Sohl-Dickstein J, Rodgers CC, DeWeese MR, Harper N. IEEE Workshop Multi. Alt. Percept. for Vis. Impaired People, ICME (2013).
Competitive Grant Support
Current: McCamish Foundation Blue Sky Seed Grant
07/2023 - 07/2024
Multi-PI: Dyer and Rodgers. McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program.
Current: NIDCD Early Career Researcher R21
04/2023 - 04/2026
PI: Rodgers. National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
DC019711
Current: Whitehall Foundation Research Grant
02/2023 - 02/2026
PI: Rodgers. Whitehall Foundation
Completed: Kavli Institute Seed Grant
01/2022 - 01/2023
PI: Rodgers. Kavli Institute.
Completed: NARSAD Young Investigator Award
01/2020 - 01/2022
PI: Rodgers. Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF)
Completed: NRSA Postdoctoral F32
04/2016 - 04/2019
PI: Rodgers. NIH/NINDS F32 NS096819.
Completed: Kavli Postdoctoral Fellowship
07/2014 - 07/2015
Kavli Institute for Brain Science
Academic Awards and Honors
British Association Medal (2007)
Presented upon graduation from McGill University
For highest performance on Engineering final exams
James McGill Award (2005, 2006)
McGill University
Scholarship, CMC Electronics Corporation (2006)
McGill University
Dean’s List, Semester Honors (2002, 2003, 2004)
Purdue University
Seminar Talks
Invited Speaker, GTNeuro seminar series, Georgia Tech (2023).
Speaker, Seminar in Integrative Neuroscience, Emory University (2022).
Invited Speaker, Psychology Department, Emory University (2022).
Invited Speaker, Open Neurodata Showcase, Allen Institute (2022, virtual)
Discussion Panelist, Computational Neuroscience Journal Club (student-run), Emory (2022)
Invited Speaker, Neurosurgery Grand Rounds, Emory University (2022, virtual)
Invited Speaker, Frontiers in Neuroscience series, Emory University (2022, virtual)
Invited Speaker, Emory University Department of Cell Biology series (2022, virtual)
Selected Speaker, Open House for Simons-Emory Consortium on Motor Control (2021)
Invited Speaker, University of Toronto Department of Physiology (2021, virtual)
Discussion Panelist, Future of Foraging seminar series (2021, virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of South Dakota Department of Biology (2021, virtual)
Selected Speaker, mEPSC external seminar series
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany (virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of Cincinnati Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology (2021, virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of Texas-Dallas Department of Bioengineering (2021, virtual)
Invited Speaker, George Mason University Department of Bioengineering (2021, virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Neurological Sciences (virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biomedical Informatics and O’Donnell Brain Institute (virtual)
Selected Speaker, NeuroLaunchpad (virtual; watch online)
Invited Speaker, Fralin Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (2021, virtual)
Invited Speaker, Christopher Moore’s lab (2020)
Brown University (virtual)
Invited Speaker, University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine (2020)
Birmingham, AL (virtual)
Speaker, Neuromatch 2.0 and 3.0 (virtual; watch online)
Selected Speaker, Zuckerman Institute Postdoctoral Seminars (ZIPS, 2020)
Zuckerman Institute, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, Michael Long’s lab (2020)
New York University, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, Karel Svoboda’s lab (2020)
Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA
Selected Speaker, “Barrels” SFN satellite meeting (2019)
Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, IL
Selected Speaker, "Sense to Synapse" conference (2019)
New York University, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, "Motor Club" seminar series bridging labs under U19 NS104649-01 (2019)
Columbia University, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, Inter-Kavli Institute mini-symposium (2018)
Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, Simons Foundation Postdoc Meeting (2018)
Simons Foundation, New York, NY
Selected Speaker, Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND) conference (2017)
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Speaker, Junior Scientist Workshop on Neural Circuits and Behavior (2016)
Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA
Invited Speaker, Michael Long’s and Dmitry Rinberg's labs (2013)
New York University, New York, NY
Invited Speaker, Matthew Shapiro’s lab (2013)
Mt Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Speaker, “Cal Cortex Club” (2013)
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Speaker, Graduate Student Recruitment Data Blitz (2012)
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Poster Presentations
* indicates presenting author
Gargiullo R, Zheng M, Hussein O, Bowe C, Morgan C, Brooks KA, Rodgers CC*. Active auditory localization in freely moving mice. Sensation and Action conference, Thun, Switzerland (2023).
Bowe C*, Gargiullo R, Mai J, Williamson L, Zheng M, Pollay E, Hussein O, Esho V, Morgan C, Brooks KA, Rodgers CC. Active sound-seeking in mice as a model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Emory Neurosurgery Research and Innovation Symposium. Also gave a talk on the same topic. Atlanta, GA (2023).
Hussein O*, Pollay E, Bowe C, Gargiullo R, Rodgers C. Identifying brain regions that enable auditory localization in freely moving mice. Emory Undergraduate Research Symposium. Atlanta, GA (2023).
Gargiullo R, Zheng M, Hussein O, Bowe C, Morgan C, Brooks KA, Rodgers CC*. Active auditory localization in freely moving mice. Advanced and Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience (APAN), a satellite meeting of the Society for Neuroscience conference. San Diego, CA (2022).
Morgan C*, Hussein O, Bowe C, Gargiullo R, Rodgers CC. Localizing damaged tissue in a mouse model of brain injury. Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS). Anaheim, CA (2022).
Gargiullo R, Hussein O, Zheng M, Mai J, Pollay E, Bowe C, Morgan C, Brooks KA, Rodgers CC*. Active motor strategies for auditory and somatosensory decision-making. Simons-Emory International Consortium on Motor Control. Atlanta, GA (2022).
Kim SH*, Rodgers C, Choi H. Active sensing and functional connectivity in mouse barrel cortex. Simons-Emory International Consortium on Motor Control. Atlanta, GA (2022).
Nogueira R*, Fusi S, Rodgers CC, Bruno RM. “The geometry of cortical representations of touch in rodents.” Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE). Lisbon, Portugal (2022).
Morgan C*, Hussein O, Bowe C, Gargiullo R, Rodgers CC. Localizing damaged tissue in a mouse model of brain injury. Laney Graduate School Summer Opportunity for Academic Research (LGS-SOAR). Atlanta, GA (2022).
Selected posters that I presented as a graduate student or postdoc:
Animal Behavior Society annual meeting (virtual; 2021).
Innovators in Neuroscience: From Molecules to Mind (virtual)
Jointly held by Zuckerman Inst (Columbia Univ) and Friedman Brain Inst (Mt Sinai)
COSYNE (Computational and Systems Neuroscience) conference, virtual (2021, watch online)
Barrels, Society for Neuroscience satellite meeting, virtual (2020)
COSYNE (Computational and Systems Neuroscience) conference, Denver, CO (2020)
COSYNE (Computational and Systems Neuroscience) conference, Portugal (2019)
AREADNE (Research in Encoding and Decoding of Neural Ensembles), Greece (2018)
Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, Washington, DC (2017)
Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, San Diego, CA (2016)
Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, Chicago, IL (2015)
Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, Washington, DC (2014)
Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, New Orleans, LA (2012)
COSYNE (Computational and Systems Neuroscience) conference, Salt Lake City, UT (2011)
APAN (Advances and Perspectives in Auditory Neurophysiology), Chicago, IL (2009)
Professional Development and Service
Peer reviewer
Nature Neuroscience
Nature Methods
Cell Reports
Current Biology
Progress in Neurobiology
Science Advances
Reviewer, Neuronal Communications study section, NIH ECR Program (2023)
Moderator, Neurobiology and Behavior Undergraduate Research Symposium, Emory (2023)
Member of graduate student committees
Hymavathy Balasubramanian (Neuroscience, Murugan lab), quals and thesis (2023 - present)
Kofi Vordzorgbe (Neuroscience, Sober lab), quals (2023)
Viviana Valentin Valentin (Neuroscience, Gourley lab), quals (2023)
Grace Jang (Neuroscience, Kragel lab), quals (2023)
Michael Hess (Neuroscience, Berman lab), quals (2023)
Ben Dykstra (Neuroscience, Murugan and Berman labs), quals (2023)
Sean O’Connell (Biomed. Engineering, Sober and Pandarinath labs), thesis (2022 - present)
Member, Admissions Committee, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Emory University (2021-2022)
Grant review committees
Neuronal Communications study section, ad hoc member, NIH (2023)
Invited Speaker, Academic Application Boot Camp, Columbia University (2021)
Lecture on obtaining a faculty position
Invited Speaker, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Columbia University (2021)
Lecture on obtaining a postdoctoral position
Member, Kavli Neuro Futures Group, Kavli Institute for Brain Science (2021 - present)
Invited by the Kavli Institute to represent Columbia University
Helped develop an online multi-institute meeting for science and professional development
Participant, Zuckerman Institute-wide anti-bias training (2021)
A series of group sessions for the entire Zuckerman Institute, led by Dr. Dana Crawford
Crawford Bias Reduction Theory: “Awareness, investigation, and reduction of bias”
Member, Zuckerman Institute Trainee Advisory Committee (2019 - present)
Worked with Institute leadership to further equity in postdoctoral training
Developed new procedures with HR to support international trainees
Advocated for accommodations for postdoc parents
Co-chairman and co-founder, Zuckerman Institute Postdoctoral Seminars (2018)
Co-created a postdoctoral seminar series at Columbia University
Personally worked to ensure diversity in speakers
Professional society memberships
Society for Neuroscience (lapsed)
Animal Behavior Society (lapsed)
Biomedical Engineering Society (lapsed)
Pre-Graduate Research Experience
National Instruments Corp. (Summer 2005)
Internship in hardware engineering group (data acquisition)
University of Maryland, College Park (Summer 2004)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Experience for Undergraduates program, National Science Foundation
Advisor: Dr Jonathan Simon
Project: Signal processing of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data in humans
Princeton University (Summer 2003)
Department of Physics
Research Experience for Undergraduates program, National Science Foundation
Advisors: Dr Stephen Forrest, Dr Vinod Menon
Project: Modeling energy levels in quantum dot structures
Teaching
Guest Lecture, Emory University (Fall 2022)
“Modulation of cortical sensory processing” for IBS 526 “Neuroanatomy and Systems Neuroscience”.
Guest Lecture, University of Tennessee-Knoxville (2021)
Neurobiology Journal Club, taught by Professor Keerthi Krishnan
Course Co-Creator, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley (2013)
Co-developed a new “Applied statistics for neuroscience” course for PhD students
Created syllabus, curated reading material, outlined lectures, and designed problem sets
Graduate student instructor, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley
“Physiological and genetic basis of behavior” (Fall 2009)
An upper division neurobiology course, with Kristin Scott and Daniel Feldman
Led weekly discussion sections and taught students to read primary research articles
Helped prepare and grade exams
Graduate student instructor, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley
“Mind, brain, and behavior” (Spring 2009)
A general science course, with David Presti
Led weekly discussion sections and taught study skills such as self-assessment
Moderated activities such as formal debates among students on course material
Helped prepare and grade exams
Teaching assistant, middle school summer camp (Summer 2006)
Robinson Center for Young Scholars, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Helped teach a course about “Energy”, including field trips
Mentoring
Participant, “Culturally Aware Mentoring” training (2022)
A series of interactive group sessions for mentors at Emory University, led by a team of researchers from the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experience in Research (CIMER) at the University of Wisconsin.
Mentor, Intersections Science Fellows (2021)
Mentored academia-track postdocs from historically under-represented backgrounds
Certified Mentor, Atlanta Society of Mentors (2021)
Completed interactive faculty workshop on building skills for academic mentorship
Participant, “Mentoring Up” workshop series, Columbia University (2021 - present)
Learned professional development skills for scientific leadership and inclusivity
People who I mentored as a PI
Lucas Williamson, PhD student, Neuroscience Graduate Program (2023 - present)
Abigail McElroy, PhD student, Neuroscience Graduate Program (2023 - present)
Nia Walker, undergraduate researcher (Summer 2023)
LGS-SOAR scholar
Cedric Bowe, MD/PhD student, Neuroscience Graduate Program (MD/PhD, 2022-present)
Eden Zhu, rotation student, Neuroscience Graduate Program (2022)
Co-mentored with Peter Wenner
Rowan Gargiullo, research specialist (2022 - present)
Carrissa Morgan, undergraduate researcher (Summer 2022)
LGS-SOAR scholar
Valentina Esho, undergraduate researcher (2023 - present)
Eliana Pollay, undergraduate researcher (2022 - present)
Rahil Vasa, undergraduate researcher (2022)
Jessica Mai, undergraduate researcher (2022 - present)
FYRE scholar, and funded by an Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Megan Zheng, undergraduate researcher (2022 - 2023)
SIRE scholar
Osama Hussein, undergraduate researcher (2022 - 2023)
Completed a thesis with highest honors. Funded by an Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
People who I mentored as a postdoc
Esther Greeman, technician (2019 - 2021)
Esther is now a member of the Dumitriu lab at Columbia University.
Jason Patterson, undergraduate research (2017)
Jason is now in the Bioinformatics Master's program at Columbia University.
B Christina Pil, technician (2016 - 2018)
Christina is now in the MD program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Philip Calafati, undergraduate thesis research and technician (2015 - 2016)
Philip is now a scientist at Regeneron, Inc.
Dr Akash Khanna, volunteer researcher and technician (2014 - 2015)
Dr Khanna received a PhD in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University in 2021.
People who I mentored as a graduate student
Ambika (Rustagi) Chou, undergraduate thesis research (2012)
Ambika is now a Senior Human Factors Specialist at UL.
Daniel Resnick, undergraduate thesis research (2011)
Daniel received an Outstanding Poster Award for this work at the Molecular and Cellular Biology Undergraduate Research Conference.
He is now an engineer at Caffeine Inc.
Dr Sarah Kochik, undergraduate research (2010)
Dr Kochik later received her OD and a PhD in Vision Science from Berkeley and is presently Assistant Clinical Professor at Berkeley.
Dr Trevor Gonzalinajec, undergraduate thesis research (2009)
Dr Gonzalinajec later received his PhD in Biophysics from Berkeley and is now Adjunct Professor of Physics at College of Marin.