Prof. Dr. Christian Doeller – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinner 2026
Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig
How do human thought processes and the brain work? The psychologist Christian Doeller has been exploring this question for decades. He is a leading memory researcher and his work has led to ground-breaking findings in the field of neuronal spatial cognition, which is the ability of human beings to orient themselves in a physical space, and to apprehend and navigate it. Doeller demonstrated that spatial contexts can also be recoded into abstract categories and that they therefore form the neuronal basis of thinking and decision-making. Among other things, Doeller developed imaging analysis methods that allowed him to detect, for the first time ever, signals in the human brain that correspond to the grid cells. These are cells that were originally found in rats and that provide the animals with a system of coordinates that enables them to determine their own position. Doeller’s findings also help to gain a greater understanding of how and why human brain diseases lead to particular forms of cognitive impairment.
Christian Doeller studied psychology and computer science at the Universities of Bonn and Würzburg, as well as at the HU Berlin, before obtaining his doctorate in psychology at Saarland University. Following a postdoc position at the University College London and work as an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, he accepted a professorship at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Shortly thereafter, he was made a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. Doeller received an ERC Starting Grant (2010) and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2016). In 2018, Doeller joined the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, where he is a Director and in charge of the Psychology Department. He is also an honorary professor at the TU Dresden and at Leipzig University, and has been the Vice President of the Max Planck Society since 2023.
GEPRIS
In our information system GEPRI(externer Link) you will find an overview of current and completed projects of Christian Doeller.