California Institute of Technology
MC 139-74
Pasadena, California 91125

(626) 796-9299

Date of Birth: 10/30/75

Citizenship: Romanian

1. Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania

Major:    General Medicine

Degree:   Transferred to California Institute of Technology - 1996

Honors:   Merit Award Student 1994-1996  

2. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Major:    Biology, Neuroscience concentration

Degree:   B. S., Honors (1999)

Honors:   Merit Award Student 1997-1999

               Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship 1998

               Tau Beta Pi Honors Society 1998

GPA:       4.2

3. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Major:    Systems Neuroscience

Degree:   PhD (2005)

PhD thesis:    Orienting and Preference: an Enquiry into the Mechanisms Underlying Human Decision Making (Chairperson: Joseph E. Bogen, PhD; Principal Investigator:

                    Shinsuke Shimojo, PhD)

Professional Positions

1. Medical Student Practicum, Galati County Hospital

Full time summer position. 1995, 1996

Duties:            Supervise assigned patients, take medical history, assist M.D. with diagnosis and patient work.

Supervisor:    Cristea Nicolae, M.D., Department Chief

2. Office Assistant, Associates' Office, California Institute of Technology

Part time position. 1996-1997

Duties:            Help organizing events for the Caltech Associates and office specific work - database maintenance, file organizing.

Supervisor:     Greta Davidson, Associate Director of the Associates' Office

3. Teaching Assistant, Department of Biology, California Institute of Technology

Part time position. 1997-2004

Duties:            Composed and graded homework and exams for beginners and advanced biology courses (Intro Biology, Immunology, Neurobiology, Cognitive           

                      Neuropsychology)

                      Held recitation sections on extra-class material and office hours to help students with homework.

Supervisors:   Jean-Paul Revel, PhD,     Ellen Rothenberg, PhD,    Gilles Laurent, PhD,    Joseph Bogen, PhD,    Thanos Siapas, PhD,    Course Instructors.

3. Research Assistant, Department of Biology, California Institute of Technology

Full time summer position, 1998 and part time position 1998-1999.

Duties:            Conduct independent research in immunology in a project studying V-beta gene transcription in scid mice.

                      Responsible with all aspects of the data collection and analysis, from immunological assays, cell cultures, to microscopy and statistical analysis.

                      Familiarity with basic immunology and molecular biology protocols (cell culture, PCR, immunochemical and radioactive marking and more).

Supervisor:     Ellen Rothenberg, PhD, Principal Investigator

4. Research Assistant, Department of Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology

Full time position 1999-present

Duties:            Conduct independent research in cognitive science, working towards the PhD degree; studying somatic precursors to decision making

                      Responsible with all aspects of scientific research, from data collection to publication of results.

                      Familiarity with a large array of advanced psychophysical and cognitive psychology methods and protocols (eye tracking, EEG, psychometric curve. etc.)

                      Program in MATLAB, Mathematica, familiarity with Visual C++

Membership in Professional Associations

1. Vision Sciences Society

    (student member)

2. Society for Neuroscience

    (student member)

Professional Activities

Academic Competitions and Committees

1. Participant in the National Olympiads, in Mathematics (1990), Chemistry (1991) and Physics (1992-1994)

          Awarded First Prize (1993) and Third Prize (1994)

2. Member of the Romanian Physics Team, International Physics Olympiad, Beijing, China, July 1994

3. Grader at the National Physics Olympiad, Annual Convention, Galati, Romania, April 1995

Invited Presentation

1. International Workshop on Cognition and Emotion, University of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, October 2001

            Presentation Title: "Gaze Manipulation Influences Preference"

Administrative

1. Member of the Organizational Committee, Galati City Cultural Festival, Galati, Romania, June 1994

2. Member of the Financial Aid Committee, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 1997-1998

Editorial Activities

Grants

Papers Presented

1. Simion, C., Scheier, C., Shimojo, E., Shimojo, S. (May 2001). Do we like what we see more, or do we look more at what we like?

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences Society conference, Sarasota, Florida 2001.

2. Simion, C. and Shimojo, S. (May 2002). What we see is what we like - intrinsic link between gaze and preference.

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences conference, Sarasota, Florida 2002.

3. Simion, C. and Shimojo, S. (May 2003). Gaze manipulation influences preference decisions.

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences conference, Sarasota, Florida 2003.

4. Simion, C., Bhattacharya, J., Shimojo, S. (November 2003). Gaze, decision and cortical activation - a joint eye-tracking/EEG study.

                        Paper presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference, New Orleans, Louisiana 2003.

5. Simion, C., Shimojo, S., (May 2004). How early does the brain know what it likes? Evidence from pupillometry.

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences conference, Sarasota, Florida 2004.

6. Shimojo, S., Simion, C., (May 2004). Orienting behavior robustly contributes to preference decision making.

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences conference, Sarasota, Florida 2004.

7. Simion, C., Shimojo, S., (May 2005). Interrupting the cascade: orienting contributes to preference even in the absence of visual stimulation.

                        Paper presented at the Vision Sciences conference, Sarasota, Florida 2005.

Publications

1. Shimojo, S. & Simion, C., Shimojo, E., Scheier, S. (2003). Gaze bias both reflects and influences preference - Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 6(12), Dec. 2003, pp. 1317-1322. First two authors contributed equally to this work.

Papers Currently Under Submission

1. Simion, C., Shimojo, S. Preference decisions in the absence of holistic cognitive input. (Neuron, under review)

2. Simion, C., Bhattacharya, J., Shimojo, S. Differential cortical activation in preference and objective two-alternative forced choice tasks.

3. Simion, C., Shimojo, S. The contribution of orienting to preference decision making in real-world situations. (Psychological Science)

4. Simion, C., Shimojo, S. Interrupting the cascade: orienting drives preference formation in the absence of visual stimulation.

Projects Underway

1. Simion, C., Shimojo, S. Pupil size as a predictor of decision in two-alternative forced choice tasks.

Statement of Professional Interests

Professional References

Biomedical courses: Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, Medical Biochemistry, Immunology, Neurobiology, Virology, Biophysics, Microbiology, Parasitology, Genetic Analysis, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neural Networks, Clinical Neuropsychology, Psychophysics, Vision Science;

Laboratory work in: Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, Cellular Biology, Immunology, Microbiology, Electrophysiology, Psychophysics, Vision Sciences

Chemistry courses: Basics of Organic Chemistry and Quantum Chemistry; basic laboratory work in inorganic chemistry.

Other courses: Linear Algebra, Basics of Differential Equations, Classical and Analytical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Waves and Electromagnetism, Relativity Physics, Quantum Physics.