CV
Systems (high-density electrophysiology, optogenetics, rodent behaviour, cerebellum) and computational (biophysical modelling, deep learning, dynamical systems) neuroscientist.
Maxime Beau, Ph.D.
| Field | Systems and Computational Neuroscience |
| maxime@princeton.edu | |
| Github | m-beau |
| Scholar | dwvkuEAAAAAJ |
Education
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2018 - 2025 London, UK
PhD, Systems and Computational Neuroscience
Neural Computation Laboratory
University College LondonMentors: Michael Häusser, Beverley Clark, Dimitar Kostadinov. -
2016 - 2017 Paris, France
MSc, Neuroscience
Université Pierre et Marie Curie -
2014 - 2016 Paris, France
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2013 - 2014 Paris, France
Medical School Bachelor
Université Paris Descartes
Experience
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2025 - present Princeton, NJ
Postdoctoral researcher, Neuroscience
Brody lab
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Princeton University -
2018 - 2025 London, UK
Graduate researcher, Neuroscience
Neural Computation lab
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research
University College London- Projects
- Study of long-range information transmission along the cerebellar output pathway in behaving mice
- Co-discovery of reward-predictive signals in the cerebellum
- Collaborations
- Lead author of the Cerebellum Cell-types Classification Collaboration (C4) - Duke University, Baylor College of Medicine, University College London
- Testing and deployment of Neuropixels silicon probes - Neuropixels consortium
- Comparison of gated linear networks and cerebellar microcircuit architectures - DeepMind
- Projects
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Summer 2014 Woods Hole, MA
Trainee, Methods in Computational Neuroscience
Marine Biology Laboratory Geometrical and dynamical characterisation of RNN activity states during context-dependant perceptual decision-making. Mentored by Dr. Roozbeh Kiani and Dr. Srdjan Ostojic. -
2016 - 2017 Paris, France
MSc intern, Biophysical Modelling
Boris Barbour group
École Normale SupérieureComputational exploration of the electrogenic properties of the axon initial segment in models of pyramidal and Purkinje cells. -
Summer 2016 London, UK
Research summer intern, Neural Network Modelling
Neural Computation lab
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research
University College London -
Summer 2015 Paris, France
Research summer intern, Neuroendocrinology
Franck Oury group
NEM, INSERM U1151Investigation of the involvement of the phosphate carrier protein Pit-1 in the function of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the hippocampus. -
Summer 2014 Paris, France
Clinical summer intern, Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery department, Necker hospital
Technical Expertise
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Systems Neuroscience
- In vivo high-density electrophysiology (first Neuropixels recording in the cerebellum)
- Optogenetics, rodent behaviour (surgery, training, analysis)
- Analog and digital electronics, signal synchronization, Arduino programming
- Confocal microscopy, volumetric image processing
- Perfusions, histology, PCR, bacterial cloning
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Computational Neuroscience
- Machine Learning - clustering, semi-supervised learning, deep generative models (Beau et al., Cell, 2025)
- Neural data analysis - spike-sorting, spectral analysis, general linear models, dynamical systems
- Python open-source software development (NeuroPyxels)
- Biophysical modelling - NEURON (Senol et al., 2022) and BRIAN simulation environments
Selected Publications
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2025 Beau, M.*, Herzfeld, D.*, ..., Häusser, M.† and Medina, J.†.
A deep learning strategy to identify cell types across species from high-density extracellular recordings.
Cell -
2022 Senol, A.D., Pinto, G., Beau, M., ... and Davenne, M.
Alterations of the axon initial segment in multiple sclerosis grey matter.
Brain Communications -
2021 Sezener, E.*, Grabska-Barwinska, A.*, Kostadinov, D.*, Beau, M., ... and Latham, P. UCL, DeepMind
A rapid and efficient learning rule for biological neural circuits.
bioRxiv -
2021 Steinmetz, N. A.*, Aydin, C.*, Lebedeva, A.*, Okun, M.*, Pachitariu, M.*, Bauza, M., Beau, M. ... and Harris, T.
Neuropixels 2.0: A miniaturized high-density probe for stable, long-term brain recordings.
Science -
2020 Tsutsumi, S., Chadney, O. ... Bäumler, E., Faraggiana, L., Beau, M. and Häusser, M.
Purkinje Cell Activity Determines the Timing of Sensory-Evoked Motor Initiation.
Cell Reports -
2019 Kostadinov, D., Beau, M., Pozo, M. and Häusser, M.
Predictive and reactive reward signals conveyed by climbing fiber inputs to cerebellar Purkinje cells.
Nature Neuroscience
Invited Talks
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Jan 2024 Montpellier, France
French cerebellum day, Institute for Neurosciences of Montpellier -
Oct 2023 London, UK
University College London Open Science Award ceremony -
Aug 2023 Lewiston, ME
Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference (GRC), Bates College -
Jan 2023 Paris, France
French cerebellum day, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moëlle Épinière -
2018-2022 online
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Jan 2022 online
Shadmehr lab, Johns Hopkins University -
Jan 2020 Bern, Switzerland
Systems neuroscience department, Universtät Bern
Selected Conference Presentations
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2023 ME, USA
Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference Beau, M., Stabb, H., ... and Häusser, M.
What Purkinje cells tell the nuclei: insights from monosynaptic paired recordings in behaving mice. -
2022 CA, USA
Society for Neurocience Beau, M.*, Herzfeld, D.J.*, ... Medina, J†. and Häusser, M.†
The C4 initiative: Cross-species cell type classification of high-density recordings in the cerebellar cortex. -
2021 online
Society for Neuroscience Beau, M., Váradi, M., Ratto, R., Kostadinov, D., Cohen, D. and Häusser, M.
Signal transformations along the cerebellar output pathway in behaving mice. -
2019 Switzerland
Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference Beau, M., Kostadinov, D. and Häusser, M.
Functional interactions between cerebellar cortex and nuclei in behaving mice. -
2018 CA, USA
Society for Neuroscience Beau, M., Kostadinov, D., Blanco Pozo, M. and Häusser, M.
Probing the functional interactions between distinct elements of the cerebellar cortex and deep nuclei circuitry in awake behaving mice.
Awards and Honors
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2024 William Morton Wheeler Family Founder's Scholarship
Marine Biology Laboratory Awarded to attend Woods Hole's summer school: methods in computational neuroscience. $3,000. -
2024 Jon Driver Prize
University College London Competitive annual Prize awarded to outstanding early career neuroscientists from UCL. -
2023 UCL Open Science Award
University College London Honourable mention for NeuroPyxels: open-source python package for loading, processing and plotting of Neuropixels data. -
2015 Médecine-Science Fellowship
Université Paris Descartes MD-PhD programme. €50,400 scholarship, declined. One of 19 laureates. -
2014 Competitive Admission in Medical School
Université Paris Descartes Ranked 27th out of 1914 candidates.
Teaching and Mentoring
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2019-2025 Paris spring school of Imaging and Electrophysiology
Teaching assistant, PhDs and postdocs -
2019, 2022 Lisbon Cajal training course: Interacting with neural circuits
Teaching assistant, PhDs and postdocs -
2018, 2019 UCL Neuroscience BSc: NEURON modelling practicals
Teaching assistant, undergraduates
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2021-2023 Hannah Stabb, UCL neuroscience integrated MSci
Supervisor -
2021-2022 Federico d'Agostino, UCL machine learning MSc
Supervisor -
2020-2021 Ago Lajko, UCL machine learning MSc
Supervisor -
2019-2020 Michael Maibach, UCL neuroscience MSc
Co-supervisor
Open Source Projects
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NeuroPyxels
NeuroPyxels (npyx) is a Python library built for electrophysiologists using Neuropixels electrodes. It features a suite of core utility functions for loading, processing and plotting Neuropixels data. -
CacheCache
CacheCache is a Python library for decorating functions with flexible, runtime-configurable caching.
Volunteering and General Skills
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Society executive positions
- Co-founder of UPSyNe, UCL PhDs in Systems Neuroscience association (2019-2020)
- Executive board member of EMPA, the European MD-PhD association (2019-2022)
- General Vice President of AMPS, the French MD-PhD association (2017-2018)
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Programming
- Python: 9 y. experience, see NeuroPyxels and CacheCache
- MATLAB: 6 y. experience
- Git: 9 y. experience in multi-collaborators codebase management
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Extracurricular activities
- Karate-Do:
Shotokan ryu
2023-2025 Kentish Town Karate club instructor
Black belt 2nd Dan (CSDGE)
- Karate-Do: