Prize Winner Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Onur Güntürkün

Onur Güntürkün was born in Izmir, Turkey, in 1958. in 1975, he began studying psychology at Ruhr University Bochum, followed by a doctorate on the functional organization of the visual system in pigeons (completed in 1984). With a habilitation scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG), he completed research stays at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and at the University of California in San Diego. Onur Güntürkün then worked as a research assistant at the University of Konstanz, where he completed his habilitation in 1992. The following year, he returned to Ruhr University Bochum as one of the youngest professors in Germany. Together with colleagues, Onur Güntürkün founded the DFG Priority Program “Sensorimotor Integration” in 1996, which successfully promoted joint research by neurobiologists and experimental psychologists. He was co-founder – and from 2005 to 2008 spokesperson – of the International Graduate School of Neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum. Furthermore, he established two BMBF research networks and a DFG research group, was an elected member of the DFG Review Board for Psychology for eight years and has been a member of the DFG Senate Committee for Collaborative Research Centers since 2009.

About Güntürkün’s research

Perception, learning and decision-making – Onur Güntürkün investigates how the brain generates these processes at the behavioral level, neuroanatomically and using electrophysiological and imaging methods. He is particularly interested in the asymmetry between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, about which very little is known in humans. The biopsychologist primarily works with deaf people, as their visual system has similar right-left differences to that of humans – both anatomically and functionally.