[visionlist] News of Daniel Ts'o

[Schallek, Jesse]

[cid:part1.t411iO4t.BFcz8HFP at ur.rochester.edu]

Dear Vision Community,

       With tremendous regret, we share that Daniel Ts’o, passed away on October 30th unexpectedly at age 69.  Dan was an avid reader and follower of CVNet and VisionList, so it is only fitting that the news is shared through this media.

While far from providing a full compendium, we hoped to capture some of Dan’s contributions in the hope you might add your own memories.  After his training in biochemistry at Harvard, he quickly identified the nervous system as his muse and where he wanted to apply his talents.  Training with Torsten Wiesel and Charles Gilbert at Harvard and Rockefeller in his early graduate work ignited a lasting fascination for the circuitry of the neocortex.  Developing cutting-edge tools, Dan’s work helped to reveal both the physiology and anatomical wiring of early visual areas. His keen interest in computers and coding allowed for complex analysis such as cross-correlation of neural signals to determine connectivity of the brain.  Similarly, his creative use of digital recording made him ideally suited for this exploration during postdoctoral training with Amiram Grinvald where he helped uncover the basis of neural “intrinsic optical signals”.

Dan and his collaborators deployed a relatively new device in the world of science, the CCD digital camera, to map the functional connectivity and architecture of the cortical surface through tiny optical reflectance changes, largely attributed to changes in hemodynamics.  These discoveries paralleled and complemented the emergence of fMRI BOLD imaging. Together, this work helped shape the field of modern functional neural imaging.

            In his early faculty career at Baylor and for over 20 years at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Dan applied his training in electrophysiology and optical imaging for decades to “shed light” on how the cortex is organized.  Collaborative works with Anna Roe, Clay Reid, Carole Landisman, Geoff Ghose, Mark Zarella among numerous others provided new information of how the brain organizes populations of neurons into efficient functional domains and hyper-columnar organization of the brain surface.   In years to follow, Dan would also make also made large contributions to our understanding of optical signals in the retina in work with Jesse Schallek, Randy Kardon, Young Kwon, Michael Abramoff, Pete Soliz and still others.

A familiar face at SfN, ARVO, and VSS, Dan shared a deep knowledge of the golden era of neurophysiology while championing new generations of neural imaging. His ingenuity, mentorship, and collaborative spirit bridged disciplines and generations, leaving a lasting mark on vision science.

His full obituary is found here which also shares the loss felt by his family.

https://www.scheppfamily.com/obituaries/Daniel-Tso?obId=46258467

https://obits.syracuse.com/us/obituaries/syracuse/name/daniel-tso-obituary?id=59956926

Authors:  Jesse Schallek, Cher Ng, Mark Zarella, Anna Roe, Geoff Ghose, Bart Farell, Brad Motter, Ron Miller, Dori Joiner and Sandy McGillis

--
Jesse Schallek, PhD
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology
Director of Research- Flaum Eye Institute
 University of Rochester
 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 319
 Rochester, NY 14620
 Secondary appointments: Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering

Director of the Advanced Retinal Imaging Alliance (ARIA)
 Associate Director of Computing: Center for Visual Science
 Phone: (585)-273-4848
 Office Location: G-4113
 Email: jschall3 at ur.rochester.edu<mailto:jschall3 at ur.rochester.edu>
 webpage: www.urmc.rochester.edu/eye-institute/research/labs/schallek<http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/eye-institute/research/labs/schallek>
 ARIA: https://aria.cvs.rochester.edu/
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