Bernstein Node Bonn-Cologne
The Bonn-Cologne region is a major hub for computational and systems neuroscience in Germany. It is currently home to over 50 research groups across the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, as well as leading research institutions such as the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and several Max Planck Institutes. Together, these groups cover a wide range of topics, from theoretical and computational modeling to systems and cognitive neuroscience.
Bonn and Cologne have a proven track record of excellent, collaborative research across diverse neuroscience disciplines, with a community including more than 10 European Research Council (ERC) grantees and recipients of other prestigious awards. The universities bring significant expertise in neural dynamics, information processing, and computational modeling of both healthy and diseased brain states, including epilepsy, movement disorders, and anxiety.
At the University of Bonn, Tatjana Tchumatchenko and Raoul-Martin Memmesheimer work at the intersection of theory and experimentation, addressing neural network dynamics, synaptic plasticity, and neural coding. Michael Sommerauer’s group translates computational models of behavior into clinical applications for early detection of Parkinson’s disease. Dominik Bach’s team integrates computational models of cognition with experimental approaches to study time-critical decision making, while Björn Krüger’s group specializes in the development of computational models of behavior and the design of wearable sensors.
In Cologne, Martin Nawrot combines theoretical and experimental approaches to study information processing in the nervous systems of various animal models, and Sacha van Albada’s research is centered on large-scale cortical modeling and high-performance computing.
Founding members
- Prof. Sacha van Albada (University of Cologne)
- Prof. Dominik Bach (University of Bonn)
- Prof. Björn Krüger (University of Bonn)
- Prof. Raoul-Martin Memmesheimer (University of Bonn)
- Prof. Martin Nawrot (University of Cologne)
- Prof. Michael Sommerauer (University of Bonn)
- Prof. Tatjana Tchumatchenko (University of Bonn)
