Michal Rivlin

Michal Rivlin is a Senior Scientist and Sara Lee Schupf Family Chair in Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was awarded the 2019 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists for her research on the neuronal circuitry of the retina.

Early life and education Rivlin was born in Jerusalem. She served in the Sar-El program before studying mathematics and computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During her postdoctoral research she demonstrated that the modality encoded into retinal ganglion cells (RCGs) can be altered by certain stimuli. This can include directional sensitive RCGs, which reorient themselves after a short stimulation, and light sensitive RCGs which change their preferred polarity when light intensity changes.

Research and career In 2013 Rivlin joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science. At the Weizmann Institute of Science Rivlin lead a laboratory studying Dynamic Computations in the Retina. She studies how the neurons interpret the dynamic signals sent by the retina, and how they make use of changing information to build a coherent visual image.

Selected publications Her publications include:

Personal life Rivlin is married to Yedidya Etzion, Head of Keshet High School, with whom she has four children.