Pembe Gizem Özdil
✉️ pgozdil@fas.harvard.edu
📍 Harvard Science & Engineering Complex, Office 6.114
150 Western Ave, Allston, MA 02134
about me
I am currently a Research Fellow at the
Kempner Institute at Harvard University.
My research interests broadly span motor control, embodied AI, and robotics.
Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to collaborate or learn more about my work.
I completed my Ph.D. at EPFL, Switzerland, in June 2026,
where I was advised by
Auke Ijspeert and Pavan Ramdya.
During my Ph.D., I developed integrative computational models of the fruit fly to study motor control by combining behavioral data, physics-based simulations, and neural networks. My thesis received an EPFL Thesis Distinction Award. My doctoral research was generously supported by a
Swiss Government Excellence Ph.D. Fellowship and a
Google Ph.D. Fellowship.
I was also fortunate to intern at the Flatiron Institute and
Google DeepMind Robotics.
Previously, I earned my B.S. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering with a double major in Mathematics from
Boğaziçi University, Turkey.
There, I worked on robot localization in
Işıl Bozma’s
Intelligent Systems
Laboratory.
news
I started as a Research Fellow at the Kempner Institute at Harvard University.
Our paper Musculoskeletal simulation of limb movement biomechanics in Drosophila melanogaster was accepted to ICLR 2026. Check out the project website!
Our paper SeqIKPy: a Python package for inverse kinematics in insects was published in the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS). Check out the project website!
My Ph.D. thesis received an EPFL Thesis Distinction Award. 🏅
We organized a workshop at IROS.
I started my internship at Google DeepMind Robotics in London.
Our preprint is out on arXiv: Musculoskeletal simulation of limb movement biomechanics in Drosophila melanogaster. Check out the project website.
I presented my work at CNS 2025 in Florence, Italy.
I defended my Ph.D. thesis, "An integrative computational modeling approach for Drosophila motor control." 🎓
Our preprint is available on bioRxiv: Centralized brain networks underlie body part coordination during grooming.
Our paper was published in Nature Methods: NeuroMechFly v2: simulating embodied sensorimotor control in adult Drosophila.
I visited the Flatiron Institute in New York as a summer research intern.
I received a Google Ph.D. Fellowship. See my interview with EPFL Research Office here.
I presented at Beyond the Connectome and Simulated Bodies at Janelia Research Campus (USA).
I presented at the 67th Benzon Symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark.
I presented at Neuroscience 2022 in San Diego, USA.
Our paper was published in Nature Methods: NeuroMechFly, a neuromechanical model of adult Drosophila melanogaster.
I gave a virtual talk at the symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines and received an Honorable Mention.
I received a Swiss Government Excellence Ph.D. Fellowship.
I started my Ph.D. at Neuroengineering and Biorobotics Laboratories at EPFL.
selected publications
For a full list of my publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile.
NeuroMechFly v2: simulating embodied sensorimotor control in adult Drosophila
Nature Methods, 2024.
NeuroMechFly, a neuromechanical model of adult Drosophila melanogaster
Nature Methods, May 2022.