Dolores Bozovic received her PhD in Physics from Harvard University, for her studies of electron transport in carbon nanotubes. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University, in the Sensory Neuroscience laboratory. From 2005 onward, she has been at University of California Los Angeles, where she is currently a Professor at the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and the California NanoSystems Institute. The Bozovic laboratory focuses on problems at the interface between physics and auditory neuroscience. Her research specializes in nonlinear dynamics of hair cells, understanding the role of chaotic dynamics and inter-cell synchronization in achieving the nanoscale mechanical sensitivity exhibited by the auditory system. The group combines experimental and theoretical approaches to explore the biophysics of hair cells, as well as their interaction with the neural systems that innervate them. The overall goal is to explain how auditory information is extracted from the environment, as well as how signals emanating from the brain control the dynamics of sensory detection.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Throughout graduate school, Justin worked in the Bozovic lab, doing a mixture of theory and experiments. His research focused on understanding the nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of active hair cells, how mechanical coupling influences these dynamics, and how these complex systems achieve such reliable signal detection. Since graduating, he has continued to work in the group as a postdoc, now studying the auditory system of the mosquito.
Dr. Toderi received his PhD in Physics in 2020 from the National University of Rosario in Argentina. Martín is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Bozovic Lab since January 2021 where he studies the dynamics of inner hair cells through optical techniques to elucidate neuronal coding of auditory information. He is particularly interested in high speed fluorescence microscopy and novel imaging techniques with minimum invasive approaches.
Graduate Students
J received their B.S. in Physics and Computer Science from Chapman University, where they studied quantum foundations and theory-independent benchmarking of quantum devices for their physics degree and studied and designed low-power integrated circuits for their computer science degree. They are currently a graduate student in the Bozovic lab, where they study non-equilibrium statistical mechanics theorems within the inner ear and model hair-cell oscillations through parallelized computer simulations. Currently, J is interested in how to apply machine learning techniques to infer model parameters and how to employ a variety of parameter reduction schemes to simplify existing models. In their free time, J likes to read, go to the movies, play games, engage in photography, and, more recently, they are obsessed with going to Disneyland.
Kate received her B.S from James Madison University where she studied ultra high energy cosmic rays. Now she is a graduate student in physics at UCLA where she works in the Bozovic lab studying somatic channel blocking and efference on the sacculus.
Jake received his B.S. in physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied active matter theory. He is now a graduate student in the Bozovic lab, where he models how hair cells process and transmit auditory information to the auditory nerve pathway.
Charles received a B.S. in Physics from the Early Entrance Program at California State University, Los Angeles in 2021, graduating magna cum laude and with departmental honors. His undergraduate senior thesis project focused on developing force fields for molecular dynamics simulations. Charles is broadly interested in understanding the properties and behaviors of living systems using ideas from statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory, and information theory, and he is particularly interested in the effects of efferent activity on hearing system mechanics. In his free time, Charles enjoys hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, live music and theater, funny political media, and great foods that are easy to cook.
Gaby graduated with her B.S. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2019. There she briefly studied the history of dark matter research. In 2020, she pivoted to biophysics and is now a graduate student at the Bozovic Lab where she is conducting research on the dynamics of coupled hair bundles in the vestibular organs of the inner ear.
Dima Vaido received his B.S. in Physics from Louisiana State University where he studied how cold-atomic gases can be used as an analog model for gravity. He is now a graduate student at the Bozovic Lab where he studies how hair cells encode auditory information and transmit it to neurons.
Alumni
- Joseph Marcinik, PhD 2025, now a postdoc at Stanford Medicine.
- Nicholas Senofsky, undergraduate researcher 2021-2022, now an MD/PhD student at University of Colorado Anschutz.
- Chia-Hsi Jessica Lin, PhD 2022, now a physical scientist at the RAND Corporation.
- Janaki Sheth, PhD 2020, now a senior consultant at Clearview Healthcare Partners.
- Samuel Li, undergraduate researcher 2019-2019, now a PhD student at UCLA.
- Tracy-Ying Zhang, PhD 2017.
- Sebastiaan Meenderink, postdoc then research assistant 2011-2017, now a research associate at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
- Rami Amro, postdoc 2015-2016, now an assistant professor of Physics at Palestine Technical University.
- Patricia "Yuki" Quiñones, postdoc then assistant project scientist 2014-2016, now a research associate at USC Keck.
- Adrian Molzon, undergraduate summer researcher 2014-2014, now a data scientist at Konux.
- Michael Lévy, postdoc 2012-2014, now an assistant professor of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at Technion.
- Yuttana Roongthumskul, PhD 2014, now an assistant professor of Physics at Chulalongkorn University.
- Seung Ji, PhD 2013, now a professor of Physics & Astronomy at Fullerton College.
- Albert Kao, PhD 2013, now an algorithm engineer at Applied Materials.
- Clark Elliot Strimbu, PhD 2012, now an associate research scientist at Columbia University.
- Roie Shlomovitz, MS 2012, now a senior algorithm developer at THETIS AI.
- Lea Fredrickson-Hemsing, PhD 2011, now a teacher at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula.
- Damien Ramunno-Johnson, PhD 2010, now a principal engineer at Block.
- Josh Tokuda, undergraduate researcher 2008-2010, now a principal scientist at Amgen.