About me
I am a Research Software Engineer and the Founder of CatalystNeuro, where I work on the data standards and software infrastructure that let neuroscience labs share their data and build on each other's work.
Vision and Work
Neuroscience produces an enormous amount of data, but very little of it is in a form that another lab can pick up and use. At CatalystNeuro we work on the practical side of that problem: developing standardized formats for neurophysiology data, building conversion and analysis tools that labs can actually adopt, connecting analysis platforms that would otherwise stay siloed, and working directly with labs to reshape their data workflows. Much of this happens through Neurodata Without Borders and the DANDI Archive, alongside a large community of contributors.
The through line is that standardization is worth doing only if the tools around it are good enough that using them is easier than not using them. That is where most of my attention goes.
Software
Side projects, the things I build outside of work. The neuroscience software is CatalystNeuro's and lives at catalystneuro.com.
- westie.wikiWeb app
A community wiki for West Coast Swing moves, edited Wikipedia-style. Every move gets aliases, variants, and related patterns, and any YouTube dance can be marked up move by move so the timeline follows along with the video. Descriptive rather than prescriptive: it records how the community actually dances.
- Invisible StringiOS and Android
Finds the moments a couple was in the same place before they ever met. Matching runs on photo metadata, processed on the device, and pairing works from a code with no account, so the photos never leave the phone.
A matplotlib package for plots with a broken axis, for when one outlier or one long gap would otherwise flatten everything else on the chart.
- ReachMyRepsWeb app
Look up your representatives at every level of government from an address, draft a letter about an issue with AI assistance, then edit it and send it. The tedious parts are automated and the message stays yours.
Recent Writing
- Westie Wiki: the moves of West Coast Swing, documented by the people dancing them
- ReachMyReps.com: AI-Powered Civic Engagement
- The new Code Crafter package for Python AST transformations
Background
I received my Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the UC Berkeley - UCSF Joint Program in Bioengineering, working in Dr. Edward Chang's lab. My research used electrocorticography (ECoG) to study speech motor control in humans, particularly the neural mechanisms of voice pitch control in speaking and singing.
As an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, I worked in the SMILE lab with Dr. Aaron Batista on probabilistic models of neural activity. That early work shaped how I think about neural data analysis, and it is a fairly direct line from there to my interest in standardizing data practices across the field.
Alternative Paths in Science
I am interested in non-traditional careers in science, and CatalystNeuro is one example of what those can look like. I work with a team of neuroscientists and software developers who came to this work from a range of backgrounds, most of them not the standard academic track.
If you are considering a path like this, or just want to hear how it has gone, feel free to reach out at ben.dichter@catalystneuro.com. I am happy to talk about it.
Outside Work
I dance West Coast Swing and travel as much as I can manage. Those two overlap more than you would expect, and one of them turned into a project: westie.wiki, a community wiki for West Coast Swing moves.
I fly a drone when I travel. A few of the results are on my YouTube channel:
