Theo Geisel
Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
and
Professor of Theoretical Physics,
University of Göttingen
How
do the myriads of neurons in our cortex cooperate when we perceive
an object or perform another task? Are
there statistical
principles underlying human travel and can they be used to forecast the
geographic spreading of modern epidemics?
Questions
like these address the complex dynamics of spatially extended
or multicomponent nonlinear systems, which still reserve many
surprises. In large networks of firing neurons, e.g., we
found unstable
attractors, a
phenomenon which would neither have been guessed nor understood without
mathematical modelling and which many physicists consider an
oxymoron. The tools and mathematical methods developed
in studies of chaotic behaviour in the past can now help us clarify the
dynamics and function of complex networks and spatially extended
systems and reveal the biological or physical role of dynamical
phenomena like e.g. unstable attractors.
Information on our current research topic of humanizing music can be found here. |
| Selected Publications | MPI Department | BCCN Göttingen | University Institute |
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Curriculum Vitae |
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| Studies of Physics: | Universities of Frankfurt and Regensburg | |
| Dr. rer. nat. and Dr. habil.: |
University of Regensburg | |
| Post-Doc.: | Max-Planck-Institute for Solid
State Research, Stuttgart Xerox Palo Alto Research Center |
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| 1988-1989: | Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg | |
| 1989-1996: | Professor of Theoretical
Physics,
University of Frankfurt (Chairperson of the SFB Nonlinear Dynamics) |
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| since 1996 | Professor of Theoretical
Physics,
University of Göttingen
and Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization |
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| since 2005 | Founder and Chairperson, Bernstein Center
for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Göttingen |
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Awards and Fellowships |
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| Heisenberg Fellow (DFG, 1983) | |
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| Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (DFG, 1994) | |
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| Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS, 2008) | |
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| Gentner-Kastler Prize (Société Française de Physique and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, 2009) | |
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| Member, Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities | |
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Editorial Boards |
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| Physical Review X (American Physical Society) |
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| Chaos, Interdisciplinary Journal
of Nonlinear Science (American Institute of Physics) |
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Address |
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| Mail Address: | Am Faßberg 11 37077 Göttingen Germany |
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| Office: | 1st floor, Room 1.77 | ||
| Phone: | +49-(0)551-5176-400 | ||
| Email: | geisel [at] nld.ds.mpg.de | ||