my life in words on Friday 28 September 2012 by bjoern in content comments: 0 hits: 676883
Birth
I was born in Würzburg on February 23rd 1971 as the first son of a German father and a Swedish mother. I grew up bilingually.
School
After 4 years of elementary school I started at the Wirsberg-Gymnasium Würzburg in 1981. During 1987-89 I participated in two partnership programs: one with Apollo-Ridge High School Spring Church / Pennsylvania (USA) and one with our partner-school Lycée Joffre in Montpellier, France. I passed the "Abitur" at the Wirsberg-Gymnasium Würzburg in 1990. My compulsory one-year-project (Facharbeit) was about the ultimate and proximate causations of homing behavior in salmon. (PDF in German)
Undergraduate studies
After I was forced to waste a year in the German army, I finally started studying biology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburgin November 1991. I was able to gather some research experience in my undergraduate projects:
From August 1 to September 11 1993, I worked on a research project at the Department of Animal Ecology of the University of Umeå, Sweden. Our topic was population ecology and environmental biology, more specifically, we traveled around in northern Sweden to study the "Effects of flow regulation, habitat area and isolation on the macroinvertebrate fauna of rapids in north Swedish rivers" (Regulated Rivers: Research & Management (1996), Vol. 12, 433-445).
During the German winter-term 1993/94 I took two courses at the University of Umeå, Sweden. The first was called "Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology" and comprised statistics, quantitative genetics, behavioral ecology, life history strategies, game theory, and so forth. The second course was all about plant physiology: photosynthesis, respiration, water transport, plant hormones, winter adaptation, etc.
From April 2000 to November 2003 I worked as a PostDoc in John Byrne's lab in Houston, Texas (USA). I studied the operant vs. classical conditioning dichotomy in Aplysia using electrophysiology and neuronal net computation (see the learning and memory section on my brembs.net website).On April 5, 2000 I accepted an invitation by Academic Press to write an article about 'Hamilton's theory' for their Encyclopedia of Genetics.May 4, 2001: I was asked by the Fernuniversität Hagen (Germany) to contribute the Learning and Memory section of my brembs.net website to an educational CD for their introductory psychology course.September 14, 2001: The German science foundation ( Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) has awarded me the Emmy-Noether fellowship.May 9, 2002: I accepted the offer by the new journal 'Evolutionary Psychology' to join their editorial board.February, 2003: I accepted two invitations for reviews on operant conditioning, one from "Current Directions in Psychological Science' and one from 'Current Opinion in Neurobiology'. See Downloads.
Independent researcher (junior faculty)
In November/December 2003 I moved to Berlin to work independently at the Institute for Neurobiology at the Freie Universität Berlin.On March 18th, 2004 the DFG awarded me my own Drosophilalab and funding for three years.19/07/2004-23/07/2004 Invited discussant at the Novartis Foundation Symposium No.268 on "Molecular Mechanisms Influencing Aggressive Behaviours". The proceedings of the symposium have been published in this book.On December 10th, 2005 the DFG awarded me a 2-year research grant on "The neural basis of operant conditioning in Aplysia".17/09/2006-22/09/2006: Invited speaker for the XIII Summer School organized by the Nicolàs Cabrera Institute in Madrid, Spain. I talked about "Brains as Output/Input Devices" and " Operant conditioning in Aplysia". The school was held at the "Residencia La Cristalera" in Miraflores de la Sierra and the topic of this year's school was "Biophysics of Biological Circuits: from Molecules to Networks".November 20, 2006: I accepted an offer by PLoS ONE to join their editorial board as academic editor.12/07/2008-16/07/2008: Organizer Symposium “The neurobiology of choice and decision-making”, FENS Forum 2008, Geneva, SwitzerlandJune 25, 2008: I accepted the offer by the Journal of Visualized Experiments to join their editorial board as associate editor. September 19, 2008: I accepted the offer by Frontiers in Neuroscience to join their editorial board as review editor. September, 2008-January, 2009: Scientific Advisor for the theater play “Wild Werden – ein Notstand” (UA; Burmester/Nolte) Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Germany January 16/17, 2009: Session organizer: “Open Access publishing: present and future” and “Reputation, authority and incentives. Or: How to get rid of the Impact Factor” ScienceOnline ’09, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
In April, 2009 I was awarded a Heisenberg Fellowship by the DFG. My plans are to continue working here at the Institute for Neurobiology at the Freie Universität Berlin. April 30, 2009: Session organizer: “Spontaneous behaviors and evoked responses: two sides of the same coin?”, 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neural Control of Movement, Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA June 2009: Offered with the opportunity to join the Faculty of 1000 as an Associate Faculty Member, I of course accepted. In September 2009 I was invited to join a delegation of the DFG to Japan on the occasion of the opening of their Tokio office. April 2010: I accepted the offer to become Associate Editor for Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience May 2010: I was honored to be promoted to Faculty Member at the Faculty of 1000 July 2010: Our proposal for a DFG Research Unit "Biogenic Amines in Insects" was funded.
Adjunct Professor of Genetics at University of Leipzig
In April 2012 I started as an adjunct professor replacing my good friend Bertram Gerber in Leipzig. I mostly taught two genetics courses and commuted there from Berlin for two days out of the week until September 2012.
Professor University of Regensburg
In Octopber 2012 I started as professor in the institute of zoology at Regensburg University. This is a tenured position.
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