Profile: Bird songs can teach us about movement disorders or learning disabilities, and provide a model for the study of some very debilitating conditions in humans, such as Parkinsons disease, Dmitriy says. At M.I.T., Dmitriy is studying the beautiful bird song of the zebra finch to understand how the brain produces and learns complex behavior.

With a mathematics and biology background, Dmitriy is attracted to neuroscience because it leverages both his scientific acumen and computational skills. In addition, there is a large concentration of unsolved scientific mysteries associated with brain development. Dmitriy hopes to develop an academic research and teaching career in neuroscience.

His previous research includes developing and using new kinds of imaging technologies to record the activity of nerve cells. Using two-photon microscopy, Dmitriy was able to record very large amounts of neurons in the brain in a non-invasive fashion. He also developed computer software to analyze the complex data and patterns of activity that came from hundreds of brain cells.

Born in Russia, Dmitriy moved to the U.S. when he was 11 years old. Dmitriy is a 2001 graduate of Stuyvesant High School, New York City. He holds a bachelor of science in applied mathematics from Columbia University, New York, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2005. Dmitriys previous honors include receiving the M.I.T. Presidential Fellowship and the C.P. Davis Scholarship at Columbia. Dmitriys father, Anatoly Aronov, is a former math teacher, and his mother, Eugenia Aronov, is a psychiatrist at New Yorks Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has a younger brother, Mike, who is an undergraduate student at Columbia.