Prof. Rafael Malach received his  PhD in Physiological Optics (1982) from the University of California at Berkeley.  He then spent several years as a postdoctoral fellow studying neuroanatomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Since 1985, he has joined the staff of the Weizmann Institute. He has recently joined the Dept. of Psychology at Tel Aviv U. as a visiting professor and has been appointed a Tannenbaum fellow in CIFAR’s Azriely Program in Brain Mind and Consciousness.

Malach’s central research aim is to uncover principles by which the human brain underlies the emergence of high level cognitive behaviors and the boundary between conscious and sub-conscious processes.  To that end he combines functional brain imaging using magnetic resonance with invasive electrophysiological recordings, performed for diagnostic purposes in patients.  His group studies brain activity patterns and their link to conscious visual perception, memory processes and free and creative behaviors.  Among his recent findings are: identifying the cognitive significance of massive hippocampal synchronous events termed “ripples”, introducing spontaneous (resting state) fluctuations as a universal mechanism underlying free and creative behaviors, and highlighting the importance of activity pattern similarities  through  “convergent evolution” between human and artificial Neural Networks.

His group has published over 150 papers contributing to the understanding of the organization and dynamics of human brain areas involved in free behavior, memory and perceptual awareness.