Michael Hawrylycz

Investigator
Allen Institute for Brain Science

Mike Hawrylycz joined the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, in 2003 as director of informatics and one of the institute’s first staff. His group is responsible for developing algorithms and computational approaches in the development of multimodal brain atlases, and in data analysis and annotation. Hawrylycz has worked in a variety of applied mathematics and computer science areas, addressing challenges in consumer and investment finance, electrical engineering and image processing, and computational biology and genomics. He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of rolling dice.

Grant review needs reform. How about we add an element of chance?

A process that uses a lottery system saves time, reduces strategic resubmission and accepts that, above a quality threshold, luck has always played a part in science funding.

By Adrien Peyrache
25 September 2026 | 6 min read
Research diagram of gene expression.

Fly neurons carry molecular signatures of their origins

The pattern of transcription factors a Drosophila neuron expresses offers clues to its lineage and birth order—and ultimately how neural circuits emerge.

By Alissa de Chassey
25 September 2026 | 5 min read
Cortical organoids from the anterior (green) or posterior (red) cortex.

Polarized cortical organoids mimic the brain’s regional organization

The organoids show region-specific gene-expression changes that match those observed during fetal development.

By Holly Barker
24 September 2026 | 4 min read