Rate My Professor Yulia Timofeeva

Professor Yulia Timofeeva is Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the MathSys Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Warwick. She has served as Head of the Department since 1 September 2021, following her promotion to full Professor on 1 June 2020. She also holds an Honorary Associate Professor position in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy at UCL Institute of Neurology, London. Timofeeva's research specializations lie in theoretical and computational neuroscience, with a focus on mathematical and computational modelling of cellular signalling mechanisms and synaptic transmission processes, particularly how their destabilisation contributes to neurological disorders. Her academic interests encompass neuronal microcircuit dysfunction, functional morphologies of neuronal dendrites, sub-threshold resonant dendrites under periodic stimuli, propagation of intercellular calcium waves, the role of hyperpolarisation-activated current, and calcium fluctuations in microdomains. She is a member of the Warwick SBIDER group.

Throughout her career at Warwick, Timofeeva has obtained major research grants, including a £475,000 Medical Research Council award in 2020 for the project "Virtual presynaptic nerve terminal," a significant role in the £4.6 million EPSRC renewal of the MathSys CDT, a £312,000 BBSRC grant in 2010 for "Integration of calcium signalling mechanisms in neural modelling," and a £157,000 EPSRC grant in 2007 co-led with Stephen Coombes for the Mathematical Neuroscience Network. Key publications include "Asynchronous glutamate release is enhanced in low release efficacy synapses and dispersed across the active zone" (Nature Communications, 2022), "Two opposite voltage-dependent currents control the unusual early development pattern of embryonic Renshaw cell electrical activity" (eLife, 2021), "Synaptotagmin 1 oligomers clamp and regulate different modes of neurotransmitter release" (PNAS, 2020), "Differential triggering of spontaneous glutamate release by P/Q-, N- and R-type Ca²⁺ channels" (Nature Neuroscience, 2013), and "Gap junctions, dendrites and resonances: a recipe for tuning network dynamics" (Journal of Mathematical Neuroscience, 2013). She engages in editorial contributions, conference organization, and leadership in the UK Mathematical Neuroscience Network, demonstrating her influence in the field.