Who am I?
My name is Daniel Van Zant. I am most of the way through a PhD in computational and theoretical neuroscience. I am focused on shortening the timeline from scientific exploration to tangible impact. Here’s my personal website: www.danielvanzant.com
What am I up to right now?
Evaluating decentralized alternatives to grant committees with the Wolfram Institute
Building the tech stack for a new kind of impact-focused educational institution with The Residency
Helping neuroscientists build clinically robust theories more efficiently with Dr. Elan Barenholtz
What have I done before that I’m proud of?
I have worked in both industry and academia in machine learning with a psych/neuro focus for about 7 years. I’ve done ML consulting with many startups and companies. I was invited to present at the 2025 MIT Human Augmentation Summit. I founded a startup focused on AI-assisted knowledge organization for knowledge workers. I received a National Research Service Award fellowship for my work with the National Drug Early Warning System. I got a grant from O’Shaughnessy Ventures for my work in AI-assisted systems for researchers. I got a crowdfunded grant to support my work exploring decentralized alternatives to grant committees, which was funded in large part by a generous donation from bio.xyz.
What organizations am I associated with?
Affiliate researcher with the Wolfram Institute.
Technical staff member at The Residency.
Contributing member of ekkolápto . An interdisciplinary research institute.
2025 fellows and grantees cohort with O’Shaughnessy Ventures.
Affiliate student with the FAU Center for Complex Systems
Researcher at the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute.
Member of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind & Society (AIMS).