Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Gloria Choi, PhD, Picower Institute, MITDate: Thursday, October 23, 2025Time: 4:00pmLocation: 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium (in-person only)Reception to followTalk Title: Neuroimmune Interactions Shaping Social BehaviorBio: Gloria Choi is the Mark Hyman, Jr. Career Development Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and an investigator at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Her research examines how the immune system interacts with the brain and how these interactions influence neurodevelopment, behavior, and mood. Choi received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD from Caltech, where she trained with David Anderson. She conducted her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Richard Axel at Columbia University.

Anna Bykhovskaya (Duke University)

Omer Tamuz California Institute of Technology (joint with Fedor Sandomirskiy, Po Hyun Sung, and Ben Wincelberg)

A series of talks on OR-related topics. For more information see: https://orc.mit.edu/seminars-events/

Speaker: Mohammed Abouzaid (Stanford University)Title: Some questions in bordism arising from Floer theoryAbstract: Many constructions in Floer theory can be formulated in terms of variants of the notion of a Flow category introduced by Cohen, Jones, and Segal. There are notions of left and right modules over such categories, which lift to the setting of spectra (or more generally modules over an appropriate ring spectrum) the notions of Floer homology and cohomology that are familiar for the ordinary case. In the presence of a group action, this results in a pairing, over manifold bordism, which in the simplest case is a pairing between equivariant free and derived (or homotopical) bordism. Knowing some properties of this pairing may be helpful for applications.

Thursday, October 23rd at 5pm Lewis Music Library, MIT Light reception to followAbout the SpeakerDescribed as "sleek, new," "hyper-fluent" and “a composer that rocks” by the New York Times, Pascal Le Boeuf is a GRAMMY-award winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer whose works range from improvised music to hybridizing notation-based chamber music with production-based technology.Recent compositions include “Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?” commissioned by Akropolis Reed Quintet with drummer Christian Euman; “Imprints” for Alarm Will Sound; “Playground” commissioned by Orchestra of St. Lukes; “Triple Concerto” for violin, percussion duo and orchestra featuring Barbora Kolářová and Arx Duo; “I Am Not A Number” commissioned by New World Symphony; and “Out of the Gate” commissioned and premiered by Nu Deco Ensemble.Recent commercial recordings and videos include collaborations with Akropolis Reed Quintet & Christian Euman, Tasha Warren & Dave Eggar, Friction Quartet, JACK Quartet, Hub New Music, Todd Reynolds, Sara Caswell, Jessica Meyer, Nick Photinos, Four/Ten Media, Bec Plexus featuring Ian Chang (of Son Lux), Dayna Stephens, Linda May Han Oh, Justin Brown, and the Le Boeuf Brothers Quintet (co-led by Remy Le Boeuf) praised by the New Yorker for "clearing their own path, mixing the solid swing of the jazz tradition with hip-hop, indie rock, and the complex techniques of classical modernism".As a keyboardist, Pascal has played as support for D’Angelo’s Black Messiah tour and Clean Bandit’s Rather Be tour with Australian pop artist Meg Mac. He actively performs with Le Boeuf Brothers, Jessie Montgomery’s Everything Band, vocalist/technologist Jamie Lidell, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, jazz vocalist Allan Harris, and his piano trio "Pascal's Triangle".Pascal’s most recent awards include 2025 GRAMMY for “Best Instrumental Composition”, a 2024 Barlow Commission, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2020 Copland House Residency Award, and various Independent Music Awards in “Jazz”, “Eclectic”, “Electronica” and “Music Video” categories. Pascal has received commissions and grants from NEA, New World Symphony, Nu Deco Ensemble, the Barlow Endowment, the Lake George Music Festival, Lincoln Center Stage, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and ASCAP.Pascal is an Assistant Professor of Music at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he teaches music composition. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music and Technology at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is a Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University.Pascal lives in the Boston area with his wife, composer Molly Herron and their two kids.About the Music Forum SeriesThe MIT Music & Theater Arts Music Forum is a series of public presentations by music scholars from inside and outside of MIT. Hosted in the Lewis Music Library and presented in partnership with MIT Libraries, the MTA Music Forum Series gives the MIT Community an opportunity to engage with leading voices in every field of music scholarship. Past presenters include John Harbison, Julia Wolfe, Terry Riley, Don Byron, and others.