Rate My Professor Arthur Konnerth

Prof. Dr. Arthur Konnerth is a neurophysiologist and neuroscientist at the Technical University of Munich. He studied medicine at LMU Munich, obtained his doctoral degree at the MPI of Psychiatry Munich in 1983, and completed his habilitation at TUM in 1987. After scientific stays in the USA and at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, he served as full professor and director of the Institutes of Physiology at Saarland University, and held similar positions at TUM and LMU. From 2005 to 2018 he was the Friedrich-Schiedel Professor and director of the Institute of Neuroscience at TUM. He currently holds the position of Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at TUM and is affiliated with the TUM School of Medicine and Health.

Konnerth explores basic processes of brain function using electrophysiology, imaging, and cell biological approaches, focusing on synaptic interactions in neuronal circuits to understand mechanisms of learning and memory, as well as neuronal defects associated with Alzheimer’s disease. His key publications include “A vicious cycle of amyloid β-dependent neuronal hyperactivation” in Science (2019), “Functional mapping of single spines in cortical neurons in vivo” in Nature (2011), and “Clusters of hyperactive neurons near amyloid plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” in Science (2008). He is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and holds an honorary degree from the Medical University Timisoara. Among his awards are the Brain Prize (2015), the Max Planck Research Prize (2001), the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the DFG (2001), and the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal of the TUM (2006). He is also a Carl-von-Linde Senior Fellow of the TUM-IAS.