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Prof. Dr. Peter König

Head of the Neurobiopsychology Lab

Full Professor (W3)
Osnabrück University, Germany

ORCID ID 0000-0003-3654-5267

h-index 82 (Google Scholar)

email

Room: 50/208
Institute of Cognitive Science
Wachsbleiche 27
49090 Osnabrück, Germany

Curriculum Vitae

Qualifications and Career

Degree Programme

Physics (Diploma), 1979 - 1985, University Bonn, Germany
Medicine (MD), 1981-1987, University Bonn, Germany 

Doctorate Habilitation

1990, University Würzburg, Germany
1995, University Frankfurt, Germany
1999, Um-Habilitation an der ETH Abteilung Biologie

Stages of academic/professional career  

Since 2003, Prof. of Neurobiopsychology at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University
1997-2003, Oberassistent at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH/UZ Zürich; Kevin Martin & Rodney Douglas
1995-1997 Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California; Gerald Edelman
1990-1994, Postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of Neurophysiology, MPI Brain Research, Frankfurt; Wolf Singer
1987-1989, Scholar, Dept. of Neurophysiology, MPI for Brain Research, Frankfurt; Wolf Singer

Spin Offs

Since 2016 Founder and Scientific Director of SciCovery GmbH
Since 2015 Founder and Scientific Director of feelSpace GmbH
Since 2009 Founder and Scientific Director of WhiteMatter Labs GmbH, sold in 2018

Engagement in the Research System (last five years)

Teaching activities and modules

Teaching in Master and Bachelor Programmes in Cognitive Science. Topics include: Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensory processing, Attention, Consciousness, Decisions, Decoding, Sensorimotor Coupling, Plasticity, Language, Sleep, Spatial Cognition & Cognitive Maps

Coordination of scientific projects

2018-2023 Co-Speaker Research Training Group Computational Cognition funded by the DFG 

Institutional responsibilities and roles

2005-2016 Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science
Many years , Ethics Committee, Board of the Institut of Cognitive Science, Fachbereichsrat, Studienkommission, Prüfungsausschuss, ~9 Berufungskommissionen.
Member of Advisory Boards (only long-term engagements): (1) Beirat “Behaviour: From Neural Mechanisms to Evolution" Universität Bielefeld; (2) Advisory Board Bernstein Centre Berlin; (3) Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Vienna Doctoral School, University Vienna
Member of Editorial Boards: Brain Sciences, Neuroscience, Cognitive Neurodynamics

Supervision of Researchers in Early Career Phases, last 8 years 

PhD students (sometimes a consecutive postdoc period)

• Andrew Melnik, 2017, now Group leader at U Bielefeld)
• Zaeinab Afsari, 2018 
• Benedikt Ehinger, 2018, now Prof. U Stuttgart
• Ricardo Gameiro, 2019, Technical Lead Generative AI at Arvato
• Alex Hernandez, 2020, Prof U Montréal
• Nicolas Kuske, 2020, postdoc with Rufin van Rullen, U Toulouse
• Viviane Clay, 2021, Executive Director @ThousandBrainsProject
• Farbod Nezami, 2022, now Postdoc with Gordon Pipa U Osnabrück
• Maximilian Wächter; 2023, Expert AI AdvisoryExpert AI Advisory at adesso SE
• Xenia Ohmer, Machine Learning Scientist at kineo.ai

Academic Distinctions

1. Keshava, A., Nezami, FN., Neumann, H., Izdebski, K., Schüler, T., König,P. (2024). Just-in-time: Gaze guidance in natural behavior. PLOS Computational Biology 20, e1012529. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012529
2. Walter, J.L., Essmann, L., König, S.U., & König, P. (2022) Finding landmarks - An investigation of viewing behavior during spatial navigation in VR using a graph-theoretical analysis approach PLoS Computational Biology, 18(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009485 
3. Ohmer, X., Marino, M., Franke, M., & König, P. (2022) Mutual influence between language and perception in multi-agent communication games. PLoS Computational Biology, 18 (10), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010658
4. Czeszumski, A., Liang, S., Dikker, S., König, P., Lee, C.-P., Koole, S., & Kelsen B (2022). Cooperative behavior evokes inter-brain synchrony in the prefrontal and temporoparietal cortex: A systematic review and meta-analysis of fNIRS hyperscanning and meta-analysis of fNIRS hyperscanning studies. eNeuro. https://doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0268-21.2022
5. Finger, H., Gast, R., Gerloff, C., Engel, A.K., & König, P. (2019). Probing neural networks for dynamic switches of communication pathways. PLoS Computational Biology, 15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007551 
6. Faulhaber, A.K., Dieter, A., Blind, F., Wächter, M.A., Timm, S., Sütfeld, L.R., Stephan, A., Pipa, G., & König, P. (2018). Human decisions in moral dilemmas are largely described by utilitarianism: Virtual car driving study provides guidelines for autonomous driving vehicles. Science and Engineering Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0020-x 
7. Hernández-García, A. & König, P. (2018). Data augmentation instead of explicit regularization. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1806.03852 
8. Ehinger, B.V., Häusser, K., Ossandón, J.P., & König, P. (2017). Humans treat unreliable filled-in percepts as more real than verifical ones. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21761 
9. Engel, A.K., Maye, A., Kurthen, M., & König, P. (2013) Where's the action? The pragmatic turn in cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Science, 17:202–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.03.006 
10. von Stein, A., Chiang, C., & König, P. (2000). Top-down processing mediated by inter-areal synchronization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97:14748-14753. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.26.14748 
11. Gray, C.M., König, P., Engel, A.K., & Singer, W. (1989). Oscillatory responses in cat visual cortex exhibit inter- columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus properties. Nature, 338:334-337. https://doi.org/10.1038/338334a0