Prof. em. Dr. Ad Aertsen

Neurobiology and Biophysics
Bernstein Center Freiburg &
Faculty of Biology
University of Freiburg
Hansastraße 9a
Room 01 009
79104 Freiburg
Germany
ad.aertsen@biologie.uni-freiburg.de

Principal Investigator in

A1-BFNT: Connecting brain activity across levels of resolution
A2-BFNT: Voluntary control of neuronal correlations for Brain-Machine-Interfaces (BMIs)
A3-BFNT: Co-Adaptivity of brain and machine: interaction of two learning systems
EuroSPIN
NeuroTime

Research Topics

Recording
Analysis and modeling of neuronal activity in cortical networks
Neural assembly coding
Cortical dynamics
Brain theory
Computational neuroscience
Brain-machine interfacing, neuroprostheses

Techniques

Single- and multiple-neuron recordings in slices and in vivo
Design and application of advanced data analysis techniques for neuronal and behavioral data
Neural network modeling using mathematics and large-scale network simulations
Coding and decoding algorithms

Academic Background

1966 - 1973: Studies in Physics and Applied Mathematics, University Utrecht (NL)
1973 - 1981: PhD studies, Dept. Medical Physics & Biophysics, University Nijmegen (NL)
1981: Dr (comp. PhD) in Physics

Professional Background

1981 - 1982: Postdoc Biophysics, Dept Med Phys & Biophys, Univ Nijmegen, NL
1983 - 1984: Postdoc Physiol, Dept. Physiol, Univ. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
1984 - 1990: Research Associate, MPI Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen
1990 - 1994: Workgroup leader, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum
1994 - 1996: Associate Professor, Dept. Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
1996 - present: Professor in Neurobiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biology III, University of Freiburg, Germany

Scientific Honors, Editorial Boards, Other Scientific Activities

1990 - 1991: Lady Davis and Minerva Visiting Professor, Dept. Physiology, Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Israel)
1995 - present: Editorial Boards: Editorial Boards: Biological Cybernetics, J Neuroscience Meth, Neuroinformatics, Neural Computation, Frontiers Journals: Computational Neurosci, Neuroinformatics, Neuroengineering
1997 - 2004: Editorial Board Theory in Biosciences
1997 - present: Faculty Member, International (EU,FENS,IBRO,Riken) Summer Schools and Training Programs in Computational Neuroscience (Crete, Trieste, Riken, Obidos, Okinawa, Arcachon, Freiburg)
1999 - present: President of NeurAG - Neuroscience Federation Freiburg
1999 - present: Member Scientific Board Neurex - Tri-National Network of Neurosciences Upper Rhine Valley
2000 - 2006: Vice-Dean, Faculty of Biology
2001 - present: Editorial Board Journal of Neuroscience Methods
2001 - present: Board of Directors, Center for Neuroscience (Zentrum für Neurowissenschaften ZfN), University Freiburg
2002 - present: Editorial Board Neuroinformatics
2003 - 2004: Elected Member Board of Directors, Computational Neuroscience Organization
2003 - present: Action Editor Neural Computation
2003 - 2006: Course Director, IBRO/FENS/EU Advanced Course Computational Neuroscience, Obidos (Portugal), Arcachon (France)
2004 - 2013: Coordinator and Founding Member, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg
2007 - present: Executive Board, Spemann Grad. School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM)
2007 - 2010: Elected Member Executive Board and Spokesman Section Computational Neuroscience, German Neuroscience Society (NWG)
2007 - present: Member Scientific Board, European Interdisciplinary Graduate School "Frontiers in Life Sciences", École Normale Supérieure, Univ. Descartes (Paris V) and Univ. Paris Diderot (Paris VII), Paris
2007 - 2010: Associate Editor, PLoS Computational Biology
2007 - present: Review Editor, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, Frontiers in Neuroengineering
2008 - 2010: Chair, National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany
2008 - 2010: Dean of the Faculty of Biology
2010 - present: Elected Member, Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2010 - present: Vice-Dean (Prodekan), Faculty of Biology
2011 - present: Advisory Board, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2011 - present Member Advisory Board, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2012 - 2014 Executive Board and Founding Member EC BrainLinks-BrainTools
2012 - 2014 Dean (Dekan), Faculty of Biology
2014 - present Vice-Dean (Prodekan), Faculty of Biology

Publications

Papers in Journals, Books, Book Chapters