Fritjof Helmchen

Short Description (for CV see below): Fritjof Helmchen is Professor for Neuroscience and Co-Director at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich. He is an experimental neuroscientist with physics background. His research goal is to reveal principles of neural computation in single neurons and in neural circuits. He is internationally well-known as expert in two-photon imaging and cellular neurophysiology. He contributed to the development and application of two-photon microscopy for studying neural function in vivo. His group has pioneered several new methods such as high-speed calcium imaging and combined fiber-optic/fMRI measurements. With these methods his group is dissecting neural circuit dynamics in the neocortex and other brain regions, especially in awake, behaving rodents. Fritjof Helmchen has co-directed many international courses including Cold Spring Harbor summer courses and EMBO Practical Courses, and he has organized several international conferences. He collaborates with national partners in Switzerland (e.g. SINERGIA grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation) and internationally with partners in Europe (e.g. within EU-projects and in the German-Swiss 'BaCoFun' Research group) and beyond. In 2014 he was awarded an NIH grant within the US B.R.A.I.N. Initiative. He is recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant and the Cloetta Prize 2015 and serves as scientific board member of the Betty and David Koetser Foundation and since 2018 as president of the Professor Dr Max Cloëtta Foundation. Fritjof Helmchen is member of the SNSF Research Council since 2018 and currently Director of the Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ). For the FENS 2020 Virtual Forum he serves as chair of the Scientific Programme Committee. Curriculum Vitae Fritjof Helmchen Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich Tel. +41 (0)44 6353340 Fax +41 (0)44 6353303 Date of birth June 7th, 1966 in Tübingen, Germany Nationality German Present Position Professor of Neuroscience, Co-Director, Brain Research Institute Education 1985 Abitur, Max-Planck-Gymnasium, Göttingen 1985-1987 civil service, hospital Neu-Bethlehem, Göttingen 1987-1993 studies of Physics and Medicine (preclinical part), University of Heidelberg, Germany Degrees 1992 Preclinical examination in Medicine (Physikum) 1993 Diploma in Physics, awarded by the University of Heidelberg 1996 Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) awarded by the University of Göttingen Advisors: Erwin Neher (Göttingen), Bert Sakmann (Heidelberg) 2004 Habilitation in Physiology, Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg Positions 1994-1996 Ph.D. student, Neuronal Calcium Dynamics in Brain Slices Dept. of Cell Physiology, MPI for Medical Research, Heidelberg Advisor: Bert Sakmann 1997-2000 Postdoc, In Vivo Two-Photon Imaging of Dendritic Function Biological Computation Research Dept., Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, NJ, USA Advisor: Winfried Denk 2000-2005 Research group leader, In Vivo Two-Photon Imaging of Neuronal and Glial Function Dept. of Cell Physiology, MPI for Medical Research, Heidelberg 2005-2013 Associate Professor for Neurophysiology Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 2011 Double Professorship, Medical Faculty and Science Faculty, UZH 2013 Full Professor of Neuroscience, UZH Honors & Awards 2015 Cloetta Prize 2015 ERC Advanced Grant 2011 Pfizer Research Prize (with Dr. B. Grewe) 2003 Emil Du Bois-Reymond Prize of the German Physiological Society 1998-2000 postdoc fellowship of the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) 1997-1998 postdoc fellowship of the Max-Planck-Society 1997 Otto-Hahn-Medal of the Max-Planck-Society