experience

Campaign Zero

Managing Director, Research and Data
June 2025 - present

Director of Data Science
January 2024 - June 2025

Lead Data Scientist
January 2022 - December 2023

Opportunity Accelerator, Results for America

Senior Advisor
September 2021 - December 2021

  • In its pilot year, the OA helps city and county governments implement policy in a more racially equitable, resident-centered, and data-driven manner.
  • Analyzed census data and prototyped a dashboard to inform government programs. Supported strategy and relationship and project management.

Columbia University, Visual Inference Lab

Associate Research Scientist
February 2020 - July 2021

Postdoctoral Research Scientist
February 2018 - February 2020

  • Built a novel, general, open-source dimensionality-reducing visualization method for labeled big data using hyperspheres (MATLAB & Python).
  • Created a statistical inference module (hypothesis testing and confidence intervals) for relationships among sets of hyperspherical distributions.
  • Developed an unsupervised variational autoencoder architecture and statistical model to improve performance and reliability to adversarial attack.

New York University, Lab for Computational Vision & Visual Neuroscience Lab

Postdoctoral Research Associate
November 2016 - February 2018

Graduate Research Assistant
September 2010 - September 2016

  • Increased throughput up to 121x in visual motion experiments by designing novel stimuli using Fourier analysis and computer vision techniques.
  • Improved visual motion models by fitting hundreds of latent variable models (MATLAB) to 10,000-20,000 dimensional experimental data on a cluster.
  • Expanded the leading theoretical model of visual motion to be able to fit and predict decades of disparate data for the first time.

University College London, Cortexlab

Research Assistant
December 2008 - August 2010

  • Developed interactive software applying dimensionality reduction, time-series and clustering analysis for large-scale neural data signal processing.
  • Implemented a highly cited mouse behavioral training method and probabilistic generalized linear model (GLM) predicting mouse choice behavior.
  • Created a graphical interface and logic program for real-time analysis and control of multiple simultaneous mouse behavioral experiments.

Harvard Medical School, Born Lab

Research Assistant II
January 2007 - August 2008

  • Inventoried years of experimental data, standardized and centralized it by building a relational (mySQL) database.

Boston University, Cognitive & Neural Systems

Master's Thesis
January 2006 - January 2007

  • Developed a neural network model of visual motion computation in area MT resulting from end-stopping in primary visual cortex.
  • Implemented various neural networks and machine learning-related models of vision, memory, and learning.

education

New York University

PhD, Computational Neuroscience (GPA 3.9/4.0)
September 2010 - September 2016

Boston University

MA, Cognitive & Neural Systems (GPA 3.9/4.0)
January 2006 - January 2007

Boston University

BA, Biology with specialization in Neuroscience, Minor in Mathematics Graduated Cum Laude
January 2006 - January 2007

  • Activities:
  • President, Treasurer of BU Outing Club.
  • Vice President of Democracy Matters BU Chapter, a nonpartisan advocacy group for electoral campaign finance reform.

volunteer experience

Columbia Postdoctoral Workers - United Auto Workers (CPW-UAW) Local 4100

Executive Board Trustee
September 2020 - present

Bargaining Committee Member
November 2018 - September 2020

Organizer
May 2018 - September 2020

  • Led salary negotiations and won a minimum salary increase, taking ours from the lowest to the highest in NYC, and raises for all 1600+ workers.
  • Organized (and coordinated organizers) during recognition and ratification votes, and ongoing membership drives and outreach. Led town halls.

New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University

April 2020 - May 2020

  • Distributed and inventoried scrubs amid staff shortages during the peak of the pandemic's first wave.

journal articles

Potnis AS, AD Zaharia, N Kriegeskorte (in prep). Multidimensional Category Scaling.

AD Zaharia, AS Potnis, A Walther, N Kriegeskorte (in prep). Visualizing the geometry of labeled high-dimensional data with spheres.

AD Zaharia, RLT Goris, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2019). Compound stimuli reveal the structure of visual motion selectivity in macaque MT neurons. eNeuro, 6(6) 11 October 2019.

B Vintch, AD Zaharia, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2012). Efficient and direct estimation of a neural subunit model for sensory coding. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 25:3104-3112.

L Busse, A Ayaz, NT Dhruv, S Katzner, AB Saleem, ML Schölvinck, AD Zaharia, M Carandini (2011). The detection of visual contrast in the behaving mouse. Journal of Neuroscience, 31:11351-11361.

conferences

AD Zaharia, B Peters, J Cunningham, N Kriegeskorte (2019). Analyzing disentanglement of visual objects in semi-supervised neural networks. Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.

AD Zaharia, A Walther, N Kriegeskorte (2018). Visualizing the global geometry of population representations of multiple visual object categories with spheres. Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.

AD Zaharia, RLT Goris, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2017). Three-dimensional spatiotemporal receptive field structure in macaque area MT.Computational and Systems Neuroscience (CoSyNe).

AD Zaharia, RLT Goris, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2015). Compound stimuli reveal velocity separability of spatiotemporal receptive fields in macaque area MT. Journal of Vision, September 2015, Vol.15, 485.

AD Zaharia, RLT Goris, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2014). Separability of spatiotemporal receptive field structure in macaque area MT. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, page 674.02.

AD Zaharia, B Vintch, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2012). Characterizing MT Receptive Fields With Dense Filtered Noise. Computational Vision Summer School.

B Vintch, AD Zaharia, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2012). Fitting receptive fields in V1 and V2 as linear combinations of nonlinear subunits. Computational and Systems Neuroscience (CoSyNe).

AD Zaharia, L Busse, S Katzner, M Carandini (2010). Visual psychometric functions in the mouse. Society for Neuroscience, page 674.10.

AD Zaharia, S Durand, L Busse, S Katzner, A Benucci, M Carandini (2009). Measuring the tuning of putative fast-spiking interneurons in cat area V1. Society for Neuroscience, page 261.12.

invited talks

AD Zaharia, RLT Goris, JA Movshon, EP Simoncelli (2017). Neural computation of visual motion in macaque area MT. Andreas Tolias Lab Meeting.

science communication

AD Zaharia (2020). Extracellular Recording. Cooper Square Review.

skills

  • Programming and data analysis: MATLAB, Python/NumPy/PyTorch, Mathematica, Java, Slurm/PBS, and Unix Shell scripting.
  • Web technologies: HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, Processing, SQL, WordPress, and Amazon Web Services (AWS EC2).
  • Applications: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Microsoft, Apple, and Google word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database applications, and LaTeX.