Darcy Peterka is a senior scientist, the Director of Team Science, and the Scientific Director of Cellular Imaging and the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University in 1996, and a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry from Berkeley in 2005.  In between degrees, and after, he spent a number of years at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab working in the Chemical Dynamics group at the Advanced Light Source exploring fundamental reaction dynamics and problems of interest for combustion and atmospheric chemistry.  In 2008 he transitioned into Neuroscience, and began applying tools and methods traditionally used in the physical sciences toward life science.

A known interdisciplinary researcher with broad experience in applying advanced methods and instrumentation to difficult scientific problems, he is also a co-developer of several advanced optical methods, including the use of computer-generated holograms for the recording and activation of neurons using light, a technology that has since been licensed to numerous companies, and is used by many labs around the world.

At Columbia, he is also a member of the Neurotechnology Center, an affiliate of the Irving Institute of Cancer Dynamics, and was the co-chair of the Faculty Committee on Research Computing, which provided recommendations for future investments in AI, compute, data engineering, and training.  Further, he is the chair of Columbia’s Morningside Subcommittee of the Columbia University Financial Conflict of Interest Committee, where he helps provide both inventors and the University guidance on technology dissemination and structures that ensure mutual benefit and compliance.