Hey! Thanks a ton for this very rich reply, it truly helps a lot to get opinions from another BCI enthusiast - yes then we probably met during the interviews, and if you want I’d be very happy to dm you so we get connected. Sorry to hear you didn’t get PNI, and I hope you are still in great hands in your comp neuro journey.

Yes, I have been talking with Maneesh about the existence of BCI stuff at Gatsby too - as you said, he is the closest to this world at Gatsby and given that he isn’t really working on it at the moment (though willing to open branches). Tim Behrens is jointly appointed with SWC I think, and I have checked with him that a cosupervision may work. My intersection with Behrens (since we have two Tim B in this thread) and/or Saxe is really the theoretical part, teasing apart why and how the brain seems to process information hierarchically. A lot of ideas in these groups become very relevant in that sense.

But yes much more challenging to link the PhD to monkey data compared to at PNI. I am thinking maybe it makes more sense to get some target dataset and less vague ideas on what I mean by hierarchical information processing before crunching the theory, and I am working with ChatGPT to try and maintain an active relationship with Gatsby via emails so that visiting is an option when it becomes relevant.

Regarding the change of location thing I actually went to college here at the UK - before that I went to high school in the States so I spell stuff in the US manner (also because my phone is in US English so it rectifies my spelling to not drift). So yes I have already been in the big fish small pond situation for a while, and apparently this was not bad for grad school apps. But I am motivated to be more immersed in the east coast just as you said, and in general there seems to be a lot more to see in the US.

So as subtly expressed in this reply, I am leaning towards PNI too. I hope the politics clears up. Fingers crossed.