Olivier Gschwend is a neuroscientist, an award winning photographer, and a digital artist.
After completing a master in Neuroscience at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), and a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Olivier Gschwend is now pursuing a post-doctoral training in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He is studying how the brain computes sensory and cognitive processes to control adaptive decision-making and behavior. His work has been supported by several awards, and published in top-ranked journals.
In parallel, Olivier Gschwend has always explored an artistic expression, from drawings to graffiti passing by dancing. In 2008, he started photography, and focused on this medium. Over the years, he became a fine art photographer
Fascinated by the emergence of consciousness since a teenager, the choice of neuroscience was an attempt to explore those processes. However, since neuroscience often fails to fully comprehend them, part of his photography work tends to complement this void by questioning concepts like identity, beliefs, introspection, memory or ego.
Few years ago, Olivier Gschwend started to take advantage of his daily research to explore the imagery and esthetics of neuroscience. Following this idea, he tries to explore the synergy of scientific and artistic gait by mixing different photographic, digital, sound and plastic media. By having broaden his artistic practice to those different media, he now considers himself as a photographer and digital artist.
ART
EXHIBITIONS
2022
Solo exhibition, « Serendipity », La Fonte, Geneva, Switzerland
2021
Group exhibition, « Serendipity », IPFO Haus der Fotografie, Olten, Switzerland
2020
Solo exhibition, « Serendipity » & « Mnemonic », La Ferme du Grand-Cachot-du-Vent, La Chaux-du-Milieu, Switzerland
2019
Collective exhibition, « Serendipity », Les Boutographies, Montpellier, France
2018
Collective exhibition, 200 pictures for the Aquarius, LargeNetwork gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2016
Solo exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », FOOUND, Geneva, Switzerland
Collective exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », OSLO 8, Basel, Switzerland
Collective exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », Uno Art Space, Stuttgart, Germany
2015
Collective exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », ECAL Lausanne, Switzerland
Collective exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », F+F Zürich, Switzerland
Collective exhibition, « Psylocibe cubensis », JUNGKUNST Winterthur, Switzerland
Collective exhibition, « Catachrèse », Belfast Photo Fringe Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Collective exhibition, « Catachrèse », Exposure Award, Le Louvre, Paris, France
2014
Collective exhibition, « Herding chimeras, Catachrèse », Darb 1718, Contemporary Art & Culture Center, Cairo, Egypt
2012
Collective exhibition, « Was bleibt übrig von Glücksbärchi », Artung! Wunderbar, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
PUBLICATIONS
2021
« Serendipity», VFG catalogue
2020
« Serendipity », photo-letter.com.
2019
« Psylocibe cubensis», Absorption, YourDailyPhotograph.com
2018
« Psylocibe cubensis», From NE with Love, QG book
2017
« Reductio ad absurdum », Météore n°2, www.journalmeteore.ch.
2016
« Psylocibe cubensis », éditions Doussomssine, doussomssine.ch.
2015
« Psylocibe cubensis», VFG catalogue
« Catachrèse», Exposure Award book
« Reductio ad absurdum », Ithaque n°5, www.itha.ch.
COMPETITIONS
2021
« Serendipity », final selection, 25th VFG contest for photography young talents
2019
« Serendipity », final selection, Les Boutographies photography festival.
« Serendipity », shortlisted, Athen Photo Festival.
2016
« Catachrèse », shortlisted, Athen Photo Festival.
2015
« Catachrèse », final Selection, Exposure Award
« Psylocibe cubensis », final selection, 19th VFG contest for photography young talents
« Catachrèse », final selection, Belfast Photo Fringe Festival, Belfast
2014
« Catachrèse » and « Reductio ad absurdum », shortlisted, 18th VFG contest for photography young talents
2013
« Chaikonibo », shortlisted, 17th VFG contest for photography young talents
NEUROSCIENCE
PUBLICATIONS
Articles in preparation
Olivier Gschwend §, Tao Yang, Daniëlle van de Lisdonk, Xian Zhang, Radhashree Sharma, Bo Li §. Prefrontal top-down projections control context-dependent strategy selection. 2021.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.472559v1
§ corresponding author
Leon Fodoulian*,Gschwend, O.*, Huber, C.*, Mutel S.*, Salazar, R.*, Roberta Leone,Jean-Rodolphe Renfer,,Ivan Rodriguez and Alan Carleton. 2020. Claustrum to medial prefrontal cortex glutamatergic projections control attentional shifts.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.14.339259v1
* equal contribution
Published articles
Gschwend, O.,Beroud, J., Vincis, R., Rodriguez, I., Carleton, A., 2016. Dense encoding of natural odorants by ensembles of sparsely activated neurons in the olfactory bulb. Sci Rep 6, 36514.
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep36514
Gödde, K., Gschwend, O., Puchkov, D., Pfeffer, C.K., Carleton, A., Jentsch, T.J., 2016. Disruption of Kcc2-dependent inhibition of olfactory bulb output neurons suggests its importance in odor discrimination. Nat Commun 7, 12043.
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12043
Gschwend, O.*, Abraham, NM.*, Lagier, S., Begnaud, F., Rodriguez, I., and Carleton A. 2015. Neuronal pattern separation in the olfactory bulb improves odor discrimination learning. Nature Neuroscience18, 1474–1482.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4089
* equal contribution
Tatti, R., Bhaukaurally, K., Gschwend, O., Seal, R.P., Edwards, R.H., Rodriguez, I., Carleton, A., 2014. A population of glomerular glutamatergic neurons controls sensory information transfer in the mouse olfactory bulb. Nat Commun 5, 3791.
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4791
Gschwend, O., Beroud, J., Carleton, A., 2012. Encoding odorant identity by spiking packets of rate-invariant neurons in awake mice. PLoS ONE 7, e30155.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030155
Vincis, R., Gschwend, O.*, Bhaukaurally, K.*, Beroud, J., Carleton, A., 2012. Dense representation of natural odorants in the mouse olfactory bulb. Nature Neuroscience 15, 537–539.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3057?proof=trueIn
* equal contribution
Book chapter
Menini, A., Bathellier, B., Gschwend, O., Carleton, A., 2010. Temporal Coding in Olfaction. CRC Press, Boca Raton (FL).
CONFERENCES AND ABSTRACTS
Gschwend, O, Zhang X., Yang T., Li B., Prefrontal cortex enables cognitive flexibility and bias. Society for Neuroscience International Conference, 2019, Chicago, USA.
Gschwend, O, Zhang X., Yang T., Li B., Prefrontal cortex orchestrates context-dependent decision making under sensory ambiguity. Swiss Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, 2019, Geneva, Switzerland.
Mutel, S.*, Gschwend, O*,Salazar, R*, Huber, C*, Leone, R, Renfer, J-R, Fodoulian, L, Rodriguez, I, and Carleton, A. Claustrum to medial prefrontal glutamatergic projections control attentional shifts. Swiss Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, 2019, Geneva, Switzerland.
Mutel, S.*, Gschwend, O*,Salazar, R*, Huber, C*, Leone, R, Renfer, J-R, Fodoulian, L, Rodriguez, I, and Carleton, A. Claustrum to medial prefrontal glutamatergic projections control attentional shifts. Society for Neuroscience International Conference, 2018, San Diego, USA.
Gschwend, O, Abraham, N.M., Rodriguez I. and Carleton A. Pattern decorrelation in population of olfactory bulb output neurons predicts odour discrimination in awake mice. Society for Neuroscience International Conference, 2013, San Diego, USA.
Gschwend, O, Beroud. J., and Carleton A. Encoding odors by spike packets sequences from ensemble of rate-invariant neurons in awake mice. Society for Neuroscience International Conference, 2011, Washington, USA.
Vincis, R*. Gschwend, O*, Beroud. J., Baukhaurally, K. and Carleton A. Dense coding of natural stimuli in the olfactory bulb of awake mice. Society for Neuroscience International Conference, 2011, Washington, USA.
Gschwend, O, Vincis, R. Beroud. J., Baukhaurally, K. and Carleton A. Dense coding of natural stimuli in the olfactory bulb of awake mice. Annual meeting for Lemanic Neuroscience, 2011, Les Diablerets, Switzerland.
Gschwend, O, Beroud. J., K. and Carleton A. Encoding odorants by rate-invariant outputs neurons in the olfactory bulb. Swiss Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2010, Bern, Switzerland.
Gschwend, O, and Carleton A. Absence of pattern decorrelation in anesthetised and awake mice. ENI-Net Annual Meeting, 2010, Coimbra, Portugal
Gschwend, O, and Carleton A. Neural encoding of odorants does not imply pattern decorrelation in anesthetised mice. ENI-Net Annual Meeting, 2009, Crete, Greece.
HONORS
2017-2020, Swiss National Science Foundation advanced post-doc mobility fellowship.
2018-2020, NARSAD Young Investigator Grant.
2016, Pfizer prize for the best work in fundamental neuroscience.
2016, Machaon Foundation grant for young promising researcher.
2011, Best poster in fundamental neuroscience, Fund Jean Falk-Vairant awards, Lemanic neuroscience meeting.
2011, Travel grant of Lemanic neuroscience, SFN Annual Meeting, Washington.