Associate Fellows
PhD candidates can arange lab rotations in one of these labs during the orientation year (1st year). However, the Associate Fellows can only be co-supervisors in the PhD phase together with a Fellow Member of the program.

Marcel Binz (available from October 2026)
Research interests: • computational cognitive science • large language models • machine learning • automated scientific discovery

Felix Blankenburg (available from October 2026)
Research interests: • cognitive neuroscience • somatosensory perception • body representation and awareness • perception–action interactions • working memory • perceptual decision-making • neurocomputation and computational modelling • neuroimaging (fMRI and EEG) • non-invasive brain stimulation (TMS and tDCS)

Stephen Fleming
Research interests: • metacognition • subjective experience • disorders of mental health • computational modeling • functional MRI • MEG

Klaus Gramann
Research interests: • neural basis of spatial cognition • neural basis of embodiment • brain imaging • mobile brain imaging • EEG

Romy Lorenz
Research interests: • neural mechanisms of high-level cognition • network neuroscience • laminar (cortical layer–specific) fMRI at ultra-high field • causal manipulation using simultaneous fMRI–TMS • closed-loop, neuroadaptive experimental designs • mechanistic network modeling

Jonas Obleser (available from September 2026)
Research interests: • neural dynamics of cognition and communication • computational neuroscience • perception and perceptual aberrations (hallucinations, tinnitus) • speech and language comprehension • interindividual differences • healthy aging

Hadas Okon-Singer (available from October 2026)
Research interests: • neural basis of cognition-emotion interactions • emotional processing and control, emotion regulation • cognitive biases in anxiety and depression • fMRI • cognitive predictors of postpartum depression • cognitive biases and interventions in social anxiety

Limor Raviv
Reasearch interests: • language evolution • language adaptation • language change • cultural evolution / cultural transmission • cross-linguistic diversity • communication games

Tobias Schlicht (available from October 2026)
Research interests: • philosophy of mind and cognitive science • philosophy of science • science of consciousness • artificial intelligence • Kant’s theoretical philosophy

Nicolas Schuck
Research interests: • decision making • reinforcement learning • neural networks • functional MRI

Yee Lee Shing
Research interests: • learning and memory development across the lifespan • predictive processing • environmental impacts on cognitive and brain development

Manuel Spitschan
Research interests: • mechanisms underlying circadian photoreception in humans (non-visual effects of light) • signal integration and circadian rhythms in visual function

Mariya Toneva
Research interests: • language processing • memory • computational modeling • task-dependent processing • semantics • multimodality • neuroimaging • ecologically valid experiments

Veronica Witte
Research interests: • impact of diet and lifestyle on brain structure and function • population neuroimaging • gut-microbiome-brain axis • cognitive aging • obesity and the brain • human interventional studies • genetic factors and gene-environment interactions • (micro-)structure of the hippocampus • structural imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, functional MRI & connectivity

Claudine Gauthier
Research interests: • quantitative MRI • vascular imaging • metabolic Imaging • functional MRI • aging • cardiovascular disease • stroke

Daniel Margulies
Research interests: • human cortical organization • functional connectivity • cross-species comparative connectivity • higher-order cognition

Smadar Ovadia-Caro
Research interests: • neuroplasticity and brain organization • reorganization in response to pathological states such as stroke • individual cortical adaptability • fMRI connectivity • spatial and temporal features of on-going brain signals

Christopher Steele
Research interests: • training-related neuroplasticity • electrophysiological bases of motor control • cerebellar function, structure, and connectivity • white matter connectional architecture • quantitative assessment of stroke-related white matter disconnection • quantitative and physiologically-specific MRI • functional dynamics of the brain • image segmentation and registration