Most tasks at the core of our lives such as speaking, playing music or even thinking, depend on our brain’s ability to build and execute sensory-motor “programs”. My long-term research goal is to uncover the neuronal circuit mechanisms behind such sensory-motor behaviors that support cognition. Addressing this challenging topic requires building good hypotheses, constructing efficient models to formulate these hypotheses, and rapid implementation of advanced technologies required for measurements and manipulations of neural circuits in behaving animals. In my research I have tried to prepare myself to tack this kind of questions. In my undergraduate experience I got involved in robotics but later continued working in molecular biology lab. I did my PhD on multisensory decision making in rats and later for my postdoctoral research I got involved in motor control and learning using the marvelous songbird system as a model organism. In my research I generally envision three crucial lines of inquiry in parallel: First, study the behavioral, cellular, circuit and computational underpinnings of sensory to motor transformations. Second, building methods and technologies that enable us to record and manipulate multiple brain regions during behavior, and tools for the analysis of complex behaviors. Third, developing computational models with testable predictions to provide engineering level descriptions of how the vertebrate brain learns and generates complex behaviors.