MONICA K. HURDAL Modelling the Brain Phone: +1 850 644-7183    Fax: +1 850 644-4053 E-mail: mhurdal@math.fsu.edu

- Interview with BBC Radio about my Brain Mapping Research: All in the Mind Radio Program on BBC Radio 4, 30 Minute Broadcast (RAM file) from 4:30pm GMT, Wed March 5, 2003. Segment about my research begins at 18:45. - Joint NSF and NIH Symposium on Accelerating Mathematical - Biological Linkages where I am an invited speaker. Announcement | Poster | Schedule | Speaker Biosketches | Post-Conference Site - Quicktime movie (3.3MB) of a hemisphere of the brain being "unfolded" and flattened. - Information about the Conference on Discrete Geometry with Applications to Science and Medicine which I organized at Wakulla Springs in May 2002. - An article about my research titled "Road Map for the Mind" appears in the August 2001 issue of Scientific American! - An article about my research appeared in the the Januray 29, 2001 issue of The Economist! - Upcoming conference: 9th Annual Human Brain Mapping Conference, New York City (HBM 2003), June 18-22, 2003. - Check this page soon for details on how to download our Quasi-Conformal Flat Mapping Software! - Check out some pictures which were published in the September-October 1999 issue of American Scientist! - Find out more about circle packing and flat mapping the brain! - Do you want even more info? Have a look at our reprint: Quasi-conformally flat mapping the human cerebellum.

I am an Associate Professor of Biomedical Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at Florida State University. My research involves investigating, modelling and visualizing information related to the way the human brain functions. Sources of data include (but are not limited to) MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans and EEG (electroencephalography) data. Frequently, I am a Visiting Professor in the Center for Imaging Science at Johns Hopkins University. Usually I spend a few weeks to a few months there each year. I am also a member of the International Neuroscience Consortium which has received funding from the Human Brain Project.

One of the projects which I am working on involves creating a flat map of the brain. I am working with De Witt Sumners, Phil Bowers (Mathematics, Florida State University) and Ken Stephenson (Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville) on the mathematical and computational aspects of this research. Our approach is to try and create a conformal flat map of the brain. The advantage of this approach is that a conformal map is mathematically unique and requires no cuts in the surface. In addition, a conformal map preserves angular proportion. I obtain MRI data from some of my other major collaborators including David Rottenberg (Minneapolis VA Medical Center), Michael Miller and Tilak Ratnanather (Center for Imaging Science, JHU) and Kelly Botteron (Psychiatry and Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine).

I am also a member of the Laboratory for Computational Vision at FSU. This is a joint research lab between mathematics and statistics which is devoted to doing research involving visualization of data, such as brain modeling, shape modeling and target recognition.

Click here to see some of my publications and presentations.

In September 1998 I completed my Ph.D. at the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia and was awarded the degree Doctor of Philosphy (in Applied Mathematics) in February 1999. Here are some graduations photos from May 1999.

Click here for Computer Animations which Supplement the Research in my Ph.D. Thesis

Mathematical and Computer Modelling of the Human Brain With Reference to Cortical Magnification and Dipole Source Localisation in the Visual Cortex by Monica Kimberly Hurdal Email   Home Page   Thesis Abstract

I do many other fun things besides research. Scuba diving is one of my favorite ways of seeing new things. Interested in scuba diving in Australia? Here is some general information and a few pictures of me diving. I did some other fun things when I lived Australia, including participating in a BMW motorbike safari in Tasmania in February 1998. You can see some great pictures here.

accesses since September 1, 2001.