NeuralStorm Workshop - September 2025

Gil Mandelbaum, PhD, General Manager, Neurological Therapies, & Senior Director, Neuromodulation and BCIs, iota Biosciences (powered by Astellas)

He leads teams dedicated to developing, deploying, and commercializing technologies that modulate the brain's electrical or chemical activity (neuromodulation), interpret brain signals to control external devices (BCIs), or integrate both approaches. His work spans research, product development, clinical trials, and commercialization - driving innovations that improve outcomes in neurological conditions and enable new forms of human-machine interaction.

A neuroscientist by training, Gil holds a dual undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biology from Tel Aviv University and earned his PhD and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. 

Tony Simon, PhD is a cognitive neuroscientist and digital therapeutics veteran who combines extensive translational research and leadership experience across academic and corporate environments. He has co-founded and led digital neurotherapeutic companies, created and optimized digital therapeutics for neuropsychiatric conditions and has experience with regulations, marketing and other aspects of digital health. He has published 110+ peer-reviewed publications. Tony now focuses on digital and molecular interactions to create neuroplastic therapeutics for psychiatric indications. 

[Dr. Simon had to cancel due to illness in the family.]

Fernando Erismann, MS, Principal Optical Engineering, Stryker Endoscopy

Fernando designs optical components and systems for surgical tools, primarily for women's health, such as angiography cameras and optical systems for measuring blood concentration in mixed solutions. He is originally from El Salvador, grew up in the Bay Area, and served in the US Navy. Fernando has a BS in Applied Physics from UC Davis, an MBA from Golden Gate University, and a MS in Biomedical Engineering from UC Davis. 

His career began at C&K Systems (now Honeywell Security Systems). He then founded Wavelength Optics which was sold to Reflexite, where he continued working including as a Product Manager with international experience. He then joined Invuity, a medical device startup company, where he contributed to over 38 US patents. Invuity went public in 2015 and was acquired by Stryker in 2019. 

Adolfo G. Ramirez-Aristizabal, Ph.D. is a Principal R&D Researcher in Accenture Labs working at the intersection of GenAI and Bio-sensing technology application. He received his PhD in Cognitive & Information Sciences from the University of California Merced in 2022. Since then his work has spanned from projects that look to improve LLM reasoning capabilities to using Neurotech to understand and enable new user experiences. His current work is focusing on how novel AI can help scale proof-of-concepts in Neuroscience applications towards applied solutions.

Recorded Q&A for Industry Panel on September 16. 

Darrell Porcello, PhD directs the Changing Brains project from the U.S. National Informal STEM Education Network and works with the Children's Creativity Museum and the Institute of Neuroethics, a think-and-do tank.  His current work on the Changing Brains project merges the systematic examination of emerging neurotechnologies with multidirectional dialogue between diverse participants to shape future research.

Holding a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University, Dr. Porcello combines expertise in education, public engagement, and technology with a robust background in science and STEM public programs. As a principal investigator on NSF, NASA, and NIH grants, he spearheaded the creation of exhibits, hands-on activities, websites, and apps that have reached millions of learners and educators interested in STEM topics. His recent projects include the development of the nationwide Sun, Earth, Universe exhibition, the enhancement of the Howtosmile.org digital library, and the expansion of a popular DIY science app series. 

[Dr. Porcello had to cancel due to family member's impeding surgery.]

Charles Bookman has spent most of his IT career in higher education. After twelve years at Pacific as a Unix System Administrator, he joined Risk and Safety Solutions at UC Davis continuing his career in Linux administration before advancing to a role in Risk and Safety Solutions as an architect, followed by a supervisor role with the Banner team in IET. He has been the Technical Director for the HPC@UCD core facility since 2023. When he’s not playing bass, he enjoys spending time with his family and taunting his three cats with the red laser.

Anthony Hitchcock Thomas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Thomas focuses on creating engaging curricula for computer engineering education. He is broadly interested in algorithmic aspects of data science and on learning and reasoning under constraints on computational resources like memory, precision, and network communication. He is particularly interested in exploiting randomness to develop algorithms that have formal guarantees of correctness while lending themselves to realization in highly-parallel and noisy hardware.

Prior to joining UC Davis, Dr. Thomas was a postdoctoral scholar in the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley.