Dáibhid Ó Maoiléidigh, PhD

Dr. Ó Maoiléidigh received his BA in Theoretical Physics and MSc in High-Performance Computing from Trinity College Dublin through a full scholarship from the Irish Government. He then received his PhD in Physics from Rutgers University, where he studied pausing in transcription elongation using mathematical and computational approaches. Dr. Ó Maoiléidigh first began to work in the field of hearing research as a Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. He described how the cochlear amplifier arises from a combination of two forms of active motility in the mammalian cochlea. As a Postdoctoral Associate and Research Associate in The Rockefeller University, he developed models of cochlear mechanics, hair-bundle motility, and synaptic dynamics. A model of hair-bundle motility explained mechanistically how it is possible for hair bundles to have a different function in hearing organs in comparison to balance organs. Under Dr. Ó Maoiléidigh's guidance, several predictions of this model were verified experimentally using a novel experimental system.

Dr. Ó Maoiléidigh founded the annual Sense to Synapse conference in 2012. This meeting brings researchers together who use experimental or computational methods to study any aspect of sensory perception (http://www.sense2synapse.com/).

Dáibhid Ó Maoiléidigh's laboratory is part of the Research Division in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. His laboratory uses mathematical and computational approaches to study hearing and balance disorders.