Rahim Hashim

Previous Institution: Yale University

I completed my undergraduate studies at Yale University, where I received B.S. degrees in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) and Computer Science, and focused my theses on the computational analyses of genetic mutation data from the 1000 Genomes Project. After graduating, I spent two years in NYC working at Frankel Group – now a part of Huron Life Sciences – consulting both large and small biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in a variety of business strategy roles. In addition, I worked closely with FundRx, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage healthcare technologies, in growing the company and investment portfolio.

Before starting my Ph.D. at Columbia University, I performed research under the mentorship of Professor Joshua Berke at UCSF’s Department of Integrative Neuroscience. My main project involved employing techniques including optogenetics and modeling of behavioral experiments with reinforcement learning algorithms (i.e. Q-Learning) to investigate how mammalian neural circuits achieve critical psychological functions, such as learning and decision-making. I also worked on developing software infrastructure to convert the department’s trove of neuronal data into the universal Neurodata Without Borders architecture, allowing for expanded data sharing across the neuroscience community.