Award for outstand­ing achieve­ments in the field of cogni­tive neuroscience

Hector Fellow Katrin Amunts has been honoured with the 2023 Justine and Yves Sergent Inter­na­tional Award, which is granted to outstand­ing female researchers for contri­bu­tions in the field of cogni­tive neuro­science and brain imaging who have achieved a high inter­na­tional reputa­tion. The award was presented during a confer­ence at the Univer­sity of Montreal, Canada, on Friday, Decem­ber 8th, where Katrin Amunts gave the keynote “The human brain atlas – mapping the brain as a way to under­stand its function".

“I am deeply honoured to receive this award. This recog­ni­tion highlights the dedica­tion of the neuro­science commu­nity in explor­ing the complex­i­ties of the human brain,” says Amunts.

Katrin Amunts is direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Neuro­science and Medicine (INM‑1) at Forschungszen­trum Jülich, direc­tor of the Cécile und Oskar Vogt Insti­tute for Brain Research at the Heinrich Heine Univer­sity Duessel­dorf, and Joint-CEO of EBRAINS. From 2016 to 2023, she was the Scien­tific Research Direc­tor of the European Flagship Human Brain Project. Since 2021, she is member of the Hector Fellow Academy.

Amunts and her team devel­oped the Julich Brain Atlas, a tool that enables scien­tists around the world to better under­stand how cogni­tive function and behav­iour are related to the brain’s microstruc­tural organ­i­sa­tion. It enables clini­cians to plan medical inter­ven­tions more precisely.