Dashboard – Health Zone

About Me:

I like jazz music and swing dancing, swimming and walking. In my free time, I enjoy creating sounds and short films!
My pronouns are:

he/him
My Work:

I am looking at brain images and I try to locate which parts of the brain are different in autistic people. Autism is a broad term, including many different types of people; ultimately we try to understand better how our brain works and is different to each other!
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My daily job is to create mathematical ideas and formulas that explain the activity of the brain. To do that, I am using a mathematical theory called graph theory. Using this information, I then train deep learning (artificial intelligence) algorithms, to discover which parts of the brain differ!
My Typical Day:

I wake up and stay in my room! Most of my work is happening at home, especially after the COVID pandemic (but also before). I enjoy meeting people and discussing new ideas though, so we have a lot of on-line meetings during the day.

Sometimes, I will also visit the lab at King’s College London and meet with people, join our lab meetings and share my progress with my colleagues.

Usually, I go swimming after work, as this keeps my body energised for the rest of the day!
What I'd do with the prize money:

I would like to continue my podcast about autistic people and their experiences. I would like to chat with more people who are on the spectrum and learn more about their life!

Education:

In Greece, a small hometown of 10.000 people, called Nafplion! I then studied Electronics Engineering and Education (BSc) in Athens. After that I did a few different stuff, went in my compulsory military service for a year and I went abroad to Austria. For the next 5 years, I worked as a chef, as this was my passion and hobby before returning to academia and doing two MSc’s (one in bioinformatics and one in neuroscience) at King’s College London!
Work History:

I worked as a graduate engineer for 2 years after my first degree. Afterwards, I worked as a chef for the next 5 years before coming back and working in a few startups as a software engineer.
Current Job:

PhD candidate in computational neuroscience
Employer:

King’s College London

Ioannis Valasakis