Dr. Sofie Valk

Max Planck Insti­tute for Human Cogni­tive and Brain Sciences

Dr. Sofie Valk is leader of the Lise Meitner research group at the Max Planck Insti­tute for Human Cogni­tive and Brain sciences, research group leader at the INM‑7 (Brain and Behav­ior) at Forschungszen­trum Jülich and Insti­tute for Systems Neuro­science at Heinrich Heine Univer­sität Düsseldorf.

She and her team study the inter­play of genes and social environ­ment upon the struc­ture and function of the human brain across the lifes­pan and its conse­quence for health and disease. Here the researchers are partic­u­larly inter­ested in the social environ­ment, given the pivotal role of nurture and care as well as social inter­ac­tion for human learn­ing and wellbeing.

She was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal for her doctoral thesis. She also received the award of the German Society for Psychophys­i­ol­ogy and its Appli­ca­tion (DGPA) and is a scien­tific fellow of the Jacobs Research Foundation.