Christiane Linster

Christiane Linster is a Luxembourg-born behavioral neuroscientist and a professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. Her work focuses on neuromodulation along with learning and memory, using the olfactory system of rodents as a model. Her lab integrates behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational work. Linster was the founding President of the Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS), which was created to coordinate and lead the annual meeting of aspiring and senior computational neuroscientists. Linster served as president of the OCNS from 2003 until 2005 when she was replaced by her successor Ranu Jung.

As of 2000, Linster co-directs (with Thomas Cleland) the Computational Neurophysiology Lab in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. She teaches a classes in Systems and Computational Neuroscience, Programming for Neuroscience and Introduction to Neuroscience. Linster is completely fluent in English, French, and German (as well as Luxembourgish), which broadened her horizons for her professional career.

Most of Linster's work has been undertaken since she was named an assistant professor (and later professor) of the Department for Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University in 2000. She has continued to contribute to multiple scientific articles and is still making advances in research into how various neuromodulators affect olfactory information.

Linster married Thomas A. "Thom" Cleland, Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, on October 3, 1998. They have four daughters named Linsey, Haley, Jasmine and Anna, and live in the small village of Freeville, New York.

From 1995 to 2000, while Linster held the post-doctoral position with Michael Hasselmo at Harvard University, and broadened her research into the computational roles of neuromodulation. She also began seeking out a possible physiological pathway for the proposed regulation of neural activity in the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of Broca (HDB) by activity in the olfactory bulb or cerebral cortex of the brain.

In 1989, Linster accepted a position as a research fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Graz University of Technology. While she was conducting research at TU Graz (1989-1990), she also assisted in the instruction of an optical communications lab and a course-lab combination in Neural Networks. From 1990 to 1993, she studied as a graduate student and worked as a teaching fellow in the Electronics Lab at ESPCI in Paris, France. During this time, she also worked towards her PhD at Pierre and Marie Curie University, in Paris. She graduated with a PhD in applied physics in 1993 and was named Assistant Professor of the ESPCI Electronics Laboratory in the same year. Linster only held the assistant professor position in the ESPCI Electronics Lab for two years before moving to the United States to assume a post-doctoral research position with Michael Hasselmo at Harvard University. From 1998 to 2000, Linster lectured for the Department of Psychology at Harvard University before becoming an assistant professor and eventually a professor of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University where she remains today.

Christiane Linster was born in Luxembourg in 1962 where she remained for her childhood and obtained her high school degree from the Lycee des Garcons Luxembourg. In 1982 she studied clarinet at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz in Austria, as well as Electrical Engineering at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). She graduated in 1987 with a Certificate in Classical Clarinet and Conducting as well as a Masters in Electrical Engineering and published her senior thesis entitled "Get Rhythm: A Musical Application for Neural Networks".