Mission

Gregor Rainer's research interests center on the study of cognitive functions in the tree shrew and primate visual system, with particular focus on short-term memory, attention and visual learning and the impact of neuromodulation on these processes. Together with his team he employs a number of techniques to study the neural basis of cognitive functions, including multi-channel neuron recording, optical methods, time-resolved in vivo direct-sampling based neurochemical and neuropeptide analyses and biomedical imaging.

Biography

Gregor Rainer holds a MSc degree in Experimental Physics from the University of Vienna (1994), and a Ph.D. in Systems Neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999). He is currently an associate professor at the University of Fribourg and adjunct professor at EPFL. He has received a number of awards including an EURYI young investigator award (European Science Foundation), an APART scholarship (Austrian Academy of Sciences), a Heisenberg Investigator award (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), an award for outstanding teaching (Tübingen Neurosciences graduate school) and an Otto Hahn Medal (Max Planck Society).