Sharon Crook, PhD, uses mathematical models, analysis, and computer simulations to study the biophysical mechanisms underlying adaptive neural computation.

Dr. Crook holds a joint appointment between the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. As a principal investigator in the Center for Adaptive Neural Systems, she studies the dynamics of neurons and neuronal networks and the mechanisms underlying plasticity in neural physiology, morphology and behavior due to trauma, rehabilitation, learning or development.  Dr. Crook also contributes to the development of NeuroML, an international effort to create a common standard for describing computational models for neuroscience research. 

Prior to her appointment at Arizona State University, Dr. Crook was an assistant professor at the University of Maine. She completed her postdoctoral research training at the Center for Computational Biology at Montana State University. Dr. Crook earned her PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Maryland at College Park and performed her dissertation research at the Mathematical Research Branch at the National Institutes of Health where she developed coupled oscillator models for cortical dynamics.