Fred Wolf elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

March 13, 2015

Professor Wolf new APS Fellow

Fred Wolf, Head of the Research Group Theoretical Neurophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and Director of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen has been nominated for this distinction by the Division of Biological Physics of the American Physical Society (APS). With the fellowship, the APS honors “Fred Wolf's  profound and innovative use of the methods of theoretical physics to address fundamental questions in neuroscience ranging from the biophysics of action potential initiation to the collective dynamics of neuronal circuits and to the self-organization of large-scale circuit architecture”.

APS Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by the physics profession. The number of fellowships is limited to no more than half a percent of the APS membership. Criteria for election are exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education.

Dr. Wolf studied physics and neuroscience at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. In 1999 for his work on the basic principles of theoretical physics in neural systems he was awarded the first Altdorfer Leibniz Prize as well as the Amos de Shalit Fellowship of the Minerva Foundation, and the Schlössman Fellowhip of the Max Planck Society. Wolf has worked at leading international centers of theoretical neuroscience and theoretical physics, including the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, the Racah Institute of Physics, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, SB.  In 2001 he returned to Germany where he established a Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Human Frontiers Science Program. In 2008 he was appointed honorary professor of Physics at the University of Göttingen. Wolf is a regular participant in the highly selective programs of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, where in 2010 he conducted the “Emerging Techniques in Neuroscience” as program director. Since 2013 he has been the managing director of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of Göttingen.

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