Daniel Palmer, Ph.D.

Experience

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  Western University

  Apr 2011 - Jun 2011

  Research Assistant

  After completing my Honour's Thesis in Psychology at Western University, I was offered a position to finalize my research project in the summer of 2011.During my time as a Research Assistant, I tested human participants with a Python based cognitive task of numericity discrimination.I also was responsible for conducting the primary data analysis for this project. During the summer I ran several statistical analyses using the SPSS platform.

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  University of Guelph

  Sept 2011 - Apr 2017

  In January 2017, I was employed by the Psychology department at the University of Guelph to teach a first year course on introductory statistics.My role of sessional lecturer included several responsibilities, including: developing new curriculum, preparing lesson plans and presentations, creating new assessments, mentoring first year undergraduate students. More specifically to this role, I had to generate material to describe complex statistical methods to students with minimal background knowledge. Show less During the 4 months before my Postdoctoral Research Associate position started, I worked as a Research Associate for the lab I worked in while I completed my Ph.D. My work during this time involved two different projects. My first project was to develop a new data analysis pipeline for a touchscreen equipped operant chamber system. This pipeline involved extracting raw information from the software and generating novel behavioural insights. This particular application was developed to include a rudimentary graphic interface that did not require any additional programming knowledge. My second project involved developing a standardized system for capturing images of real objects at specific rotations to incorporate into operant chamber tasks. Show less In addition to my research as a graduate student, I was also employed several times by the Psychology department at the University of Guelph to serve as a teaching assistant in various Psychology and Neuroscience courses.I was a teaching assistant for many topics including: Introductory Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavioural Neuroscience. In particular, I spent most of my time as a teaching assistant conducting in class tutorial sessions for students enrolled in Statistic courses in the Psychology department. In this role, I generated several lesson plans and presentations on describing practical applications of statistics. This included both conceptual level information and practical examples of how to conduct these statistics in platforms such as: Excel, SPSS, & R. Through my career, I have taught these concepts at various levels including introductory undergraduate courses and advanced graduate courses. Show less

  • Sessional Lecturer

    Jan 2017 - Apr 2017

  • Research Associate

    Jan 2017 - Apr 2017

  • Teaching Assistant

    Sept 2011 - Dec 2016
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  Western University

  May 2017 - now

  Research Scientist III (NeuroInformatics Head)In this role, I lead a team of software engineers, research associates, and trainees in the development of neuroinformatic projects to increase research capacity at Western University. I lead the development of several software and hardware projects designed to improve our research infrastructure. I work with researchers and trainees to facilitate the development of advanced data pipelines and analysis protocols. I develop and lead an independent research portfolio designed to further improve open science practices and neuroscientific research within translational neuroscience, with a focus on preclinical research. Show less Mitacs Industrial Postdoctoral Fellow (Industry Collaboration)In May 2019, I started an industrial fellowship through MITACS after a successful award application. The industrial fellowship is a partnership between Robarts Research Institute (Western University, London, Ontario, Canada) and Lafayette Instrument Company (Neuroscience Division, Lafayette Instrument Company, Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America). The scope of my work in this fellowship has been to work on integrating advanced technologies into Lafayette's Bussey-Saksida Touchscreen Operant System. In particular, my work has focused on integrating artificial neural network based subject tracking and pose analysis. To this end, I have been working with the Translational Cognitive Neuroscience (TCN) Lab and Lafayette to develop an optimized tracking system that is capable of generating additional insights into behaviour.Outside of my work with Lafayette, I also develop new software applications for human cognitive testing. I have developed new Python based cognitive testing systems for measuring complex cognitive processes in human patients with conditions such as Parkinson's, Dementia, and Concussion. This software will ultimately be a powerful tool for accelerating cognitive testing in the clinical trial framework. Show less I was hired on a grant from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) to develop new methods to measure metacognitive decision making in animal models, and to study the neurobiological correlates of these behaviours.This project required me to develop new behavioural tests to study metacognitive phenomenon. These tests were designed to be used with touchscreen operant systems.I used a variety of practical lab techniques including optogenetics for direct modulation of neural circuitry, and fiber photometry to measure calcium dynamics during behaviour. To complement these lab techniques, I developed new data analysis pipelines to link fluorescent signals from biosensors to complex operant behaviour, which is now currently used widely by the research group. I also developed data analysis pipelines to automate the data collection pipeline for optogenetic studies, which are still in use by the research group I work with. Show less

  • Research Scientist (III)

    Jun 2024 - now

  • Research Associate (II)

    Jun 2022 - May 2024

  • Postdoctoral Fellow

    May 2019 - Jun 2022

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate

    May 2017 - May 2019
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  Canadian Institute for Advanced Research

  Jun 2019 - Jul 2019

  Meeting Reporter

  I was hired by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) to take the official notes for an annual meeting of the Brain, Mind, and Consciousness program. As part of my role as Meeting Reporter, I attended all of the official presentations and discussions held by the members of the program.Following the meeting, I developed an official report on the proceedings of the meeting, including a summary of all the academic presentations, major themes of the meeting, and high level discussion on key issues that were addressed. Show less