Wolf Singer is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and Founding Director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and the Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI) for Brain Research. He studied medicine at the Universities of Munich and Paris, received his M.D. from the Ludwig Maximilian University and his Ph.D. from the Technical University in Munich.
Until the mid-eighties his research interests were focused on the experience-dependent development of the cerebral cortex and on mechanisms of use-dependent synaptic plasticity. Subsequently, his research concentrated on the binding problem that arises from the distributed organization of the cerebral cortex. The hypothesis forwarded by Professor Singer is that the numerous and widely distributed subprocesses which constitute the basis of cognitive and executive functions are coordinated and bound together by the precise temporal synchronization of oscillatory neuronal activity.
Professor Singer has published more than 300 articles in peer reviewed journals, contributed more than 200 chapters to books, written numerous essays on the ethical and philosophical implications of neuroscientific discoveries, and published 3 books. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the IPSEN Prize for Neuronal Plasticity, the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, the Zülch Prize for Brain Research, the Communicator Prize of the German Research Foundation and the INNS Hebb Award. Prof. Singer was awarded a Dr. h.c. from Oldenburg University and Rutgers University, N.J. He is member of numerous national and international academies, including the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He served as President of the European Neuroscience Association, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Max Planck Society, and is member of numerous advisory boards of scientific organizations and editorial boards of scientific journals.
