David Mertens

After my freshman year at Notre Dame, I transferred to the University of Missouri where I earned a BS in Physics, a BS in Mathematics, and a MS in Physics. I also competed on the Cross Country and Track and Field teams. In 2005 I started my Ph. D. program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where I studied synchronization with Richard Weaver. I obtained my Ph. D. in Physics in May, 2011 and joined the Amaral Lab in August of the same year.

Most of my current work focuses on implementing algorithms for time series analysis. These include hidden markov models to analyze mouse licking behavior, dynamic programming methods for partitioning weigh-in time series according to linearly or exponential trends, and spring-layout algorithms for visualizing complex networks.

I am an avid Perl programmer. As time allows, I hope to implement a number of algorithms for analysis of networks in C and Perl.