News

Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner receives the 2024 Verriest medal

14.08.2024

During the 27th International Colour Vision Society (ICVS) Symposium in Ljubljana, Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner was awarded the prestigious 2024 Verriest Medal. The award was established in 1991 in memory of the founder of the Society, Dr. Guy Verriest, and honours outstanding contributions in the field of colour vision. By awarding the Medal, the ICVS acknowledges Prof. Gegenfurtner's outstanding scientific contributions and his dedication to fostering scientific exchange.

More information can be found here.

Müge Cavdan wins Best Paper Award at EuroHaptics 2024

05.07.2024

We are thrilled to announce that Müge Cavdan from HapLab, has received the Best Paper Award at EuroHaptics 2024 for her work “To touch or not to touch: The linkage between viscosity and pleasantness” (co-author Knut Drewing). This award highlights Müge's outstanding contributions to the field of haptics. 

Congratulations to Müge and many thanks to Knut Drewing for his continued support. We look forward to seeing more visionary work from Müge in the future.

Prof. Mary Hayhoe receives the Kurt-Koffka-Medal

03.07.2024

On July 03, 2024 Prof. Mary Hayhoe from the University of Texas, Austin, USA, was awarded with the Kurt-Koffka-Medal by the Department 06 - Psychology and Sports Science at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) for her outstanding contributions to the scientific understanding of visual perception. Following the award ceremony, the awardee gave a lecture on "Visual Perception in the Natural World". Further information on the award and the Kurt-Koffka-Medal.

ERC Grant for JLU Researcher Katharina Dobs: EU funds research on the processing of visual information with 1.5 million euros

05.09.2023

The "Europäische Forschungsrat" has awarded Research Group Leader Katharina Dobs a prestigious "ERC Starting Grant" and is funding the project "DEEPFUNC – Using deep neural networks to understand functional specialization in the human visual cortex" with a total of 1.5 million euros over a period of five years. This will further strengthen JLU's activities in cognitive science and artificial intelligence (AI).

The aim of the project is to use a combination of large-scale natural visual input, hypothesis- and data-driven analyses, recent advances in deep neural networks with behavioural and neural data to understand the origins of functional specialization in the human visual ventral pathway. More information can be found here.

Worldhaptics 2023 Honorable Mention for Best Paper Award for Michaela Jeschke

13.07.2023

Michaela Jeschke got a honorable mention for the best technical paper award at World Haptics 2023 for her paper: "The tactile Distance Aftereffect Transfers to Roughness Perception" on 13.7.2023 (co-authors: Elena Azanon, Knut Drewing). The conference takes place every second year in varying cities, this year in Delft.. Many congratulations!

ERC Grant for JLU Professor Roland W. Fleming: EU funds research on material perception with 2.5 million euros 

13.07.2023

The "Europäische Forschungsrat" has awarded Professor Roland W. Fleming a prestigious "ERC Advanced Grant" and is funding the project "STUFF – Seeing Stuff: Perceiving Materials and their Properties" with a total of 2.5 million euros over a period of five years. This will further strengthen JLU's activities in cognitive science and material perception.

To determine whether objects are rough or smooth, hard or soft, wet or dry, we don't have to touch them—usually a glance is enough. The aim of the project is to investigate how the brain infers such object properties from the light patterns on our retina. More information can be found here.

Dr. Kate Storrs receives Communicator Award 2022

13.10.2022

Kate Storrs is a postdoctoral researcher in visual perception at Justus Liebig University Giessen and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. She is currently working with Professor Roland Fleming, using "deep learning" artificial intelligence systems to understand how the human brain processes visual information. Before coming to Giessen, Kate worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Cambridge (UK) on computational models for human object recognition, as a data scientist at Twitter in London, and did a PhD on human visual perception in Brisbane, Australia. Kate has a passion for public science communication and has presented stand-up comedy and public talks on science on stage at bars, festivals and theatres, appeared on podcasts and radio and been interviewed on local television. She will soon open her own lab at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Further information you can find here.

Award Winner Marcel Linka receives Communicator Award "Young Talent" 2022

13.10.2022

Marcel Linka is a doctoral student in the Individual Perception Research Group of Dr. Benjamin de Haas at Justus Liebig University Giessen.Linka is working in his dissertation on the question of how individual eye movements are and whether they can be used to diagnose neurodevelopmental disorders. The project 'Million Moments', which he developed together with his supervisor Benjamin de Haas as part of his doctorate, attempts to get closer to an answer to this question and to involve the general public directly in it. Further Information you can find here.

Prof. Edward Adelson receives the Kurt-Koffka-Medal

13.07.2022

On July 13, 2022 the internationally renowned perception psychologist Prof. Dr. Edward (Ted) Adelson from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, was awarded with the Kurt-Koffka-Medal by the Department 06 - Psychology and Sports Science at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) for his outstanding contributions to the scientific understanding of visual perception. Following the award ceremony, the awardee gave a lecture on "Scientific and Unscientific Methods for Studying Vision". Further information on the award and the Kurt-Koffka-Medal.

Open Campus Day at Justus Liebig University (JLU)

02.07.2022

IAs part of the Open Campus Day at Justus Liebig University (JLU) on Saturday, July 2nd, 2022, prospective students had the opportunity to meet with fellow students, teachers, and advisors from a variety of departments at JLU, including experimental psychology. Lab members performed interactive demonstrations of experiments in virtual reality and wearable haptics, the rubber hand illusion, and motion after-effects.

Eurohaptics 2022 Second Best Paper Award for HapLab

26.05.2022

Knut Drewing and Jean Vroomen have received the Second Best Paper Award of the Eurohaptics 2022 conference on Wednesday, 26.05. 2022. Müge Cavdan ha presented the paper. The conference takes place biannually in varying European cities, this year in Hamburg. The awarded paper deals shows that stimuli presented to moving hands are perceived before stimuli at stationary hands. Many congratulations!

Diana's poster wins 1st prize at TeaP

20.03.2022

Diana Kollenda won the 1st prize of this years TeaP poster competition! Her poster on 'Seeing it differently: The AmbigObj stimulus-set depicting ambiguous drawings of small-large and animate-inanimate object pairs' presents a new stimulus set of ambiguous shapes, which Diana produced, validated and used for a first study with intriguing results. We're immensely proud of Diana's creativity, cleverness, dedication and success!

Dissertation award for JLU for Dr. Harun Karimpur

26.11.2021

Dr. Harun Karimpur was awarded with the dissertation award of the Justus Liebig University Giessen for his work on „From reaching to walking: Insights from virtual reality studies on the use of allocentric cues for spatial representations“. Congratulations. 

Dissertation award for Dr. Alexander Göttker

20.10.2021

Dr. Alexander Göttker (JLU Giessen) won this year's dissertation competition of the General Psychology Section of the German Society for Psychology. With his work "A change of perspective: Studying the interaction of saccadic and pursuit eye movements for oculomotor control and perception" he prevailed against 33 applicants ahead of Rene Schlegelmilch (Bremen) and Lea Maria Bartsch (Zurich). 

Funding of the cluster project "The Adaptive Mind" (TAM)

01.02.2021

The Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts has approved the joint cluster project "The Adaptive Mind" (TAM) of the Universities of Giessen and Marburg and TU Darmstadt under JLU leadership, with Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner as the applicant partner for JLU. In an interdisciplinary research team from psychology, psychiatry, sports science, physics and computer science, the cluster project will investigate the conflicting priorities of stability and change. The collaboriation project will be funded with a total of 7.4 million Euros over the next four years, starting in April 2021. More information can be found in the JLU press release and HMWK. The GAZ and FAZ also reported.

Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner becomes Henriette Herz-Scout of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation

10.12.2020

Prof. Karl Gegenfurtner was elected to the Henriette Herz-Scouting-Program of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. As elected scout he can propose foreign PostDoctoral scientists directly for a Humboldt research fellowship. Further information can be found here.

Eurohaptics 2020 Best Paper Award for Müge Cavdan

09.09.2020

Müge Cavdan and her colleagues have received the BestPaper Award of the Eurohaptics 2020 conference on Wednesday, 9.9. 2020. This year the conference took place primarily virtually. The awarded paper deals with affective learning in haptic material perception. Many congratulations!

Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner receives ERC Advanced Grant

31.03.2020

Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The grant is is worth 2.5 milion Euro. Further information can befound here (only German).

Dr. Ben de Haas receives ERC Starting Grant

03.09.2019

Dr. Ben de Haas was awarded an ERC Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for his research project "INDIVISUAL". The grant is is worth 1.5 milion Euro. Further information can befound here (only German).

Dr. Matteo Valsecchi appointed as professor at the University Bologna

01.09.2019

Dr. Matteo Valsecchi (Dept. of General Psychology) has accepted an appointment as Senior Assistant Professor for Experimental Psychology at the University of Bologna.

Worldhaptics 2019 Best Student Paper Award for Müge Cavdan

15.07.2019

Müge Cavdan has received the Best Student Paper Award of the Worldhaptics 2019 conference. In her work she has investigated the different haptic dimensions of softness and corresponding exploratory procedures. Congratulations!

Pascal Mamassian receives Anneliese Maier-Forschungspreis

12.09.2018

Pascal Mamassian was awarded with the Anneliese Maier-Forschungspreis. We congratulate him. For further information, please click here

Eurohaptics 2018 Best Paper Award for Anna Metzger

16.06.2018

Anna Metzger has received the Best Paper Award of the Eurohaptics 2018 conference. In her work she has investigated the saliency of haptic surface characteristics. Further studies from the haptics group were listed among the three finalists in the categories Best Student Paper Award (Aaron Zöller) and Best Poster Award (Knut Drewing). Congratulations!

Florian Bayer receives Edmund Optics Educational Award

11.06.2018

Florian Bayer has received the Edmund Optics Educational Award for his achievements. We congratulate him. For further information, please visit the website of Edmund Optics.

Department for General Psychology at "Straße der Experimente"

03.06.2018

The department for General Psychology had a stand (title: "Farben sehen, fühlen und hören") at this years "Straße der Experimente" where interested people had the possibility to take part in different experiments and learn something about perception.

Vivian Paulun takes 2nd place in the dissertation competition of the General Psychology Division

05.05.2017

Humboldt Research Award for Jan Koenderink

31.10.2016

The Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation awarded the Humboldt Research Award to Jan Koenderink.

Prof. Gegenfurtner awarded with the Wilhelm-Wundt-Medal

10.10.2016

During the 50th-congress of  the german society of psychology (DGP) Prof. Gegenfurtner was awarded with the Wilhelm-Wundt-Medal for his scientific work.

The president of the GDP Prof. Dr. Andrea Abele-Brehm said in her speech that Prof Gegenfurtner "conducts research on the highest methodological and theoretical level".  She further mentioned that he uses " innovative experimental designs to challenge classical views in the field and  developed new, seminal neuroscientific approaches". Further information can be found at the official statement of the university (only available in german).

ERC Consolidator Grant for Prof. Roland W. Fleming

18.02.2016

Prof. Dr. Roland W. Fleming was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant  from the European Research Council (ERC). His Project with the title: "Shape Understanding: On the Perception auf Growth, Form and Process“. The grant is worth 1,95 Million Euro.

Prof. Karl R. Gegenfurtner appointed as a member of the Leopoldina

31.12.2015

Prof. Karl R. Gegenfurtner was selected as a member of the Leopoldina

Founded in 1652, the Leopoldina is one of the oldest academies of science in the world. It is dedicated to the advancement of science for the benefit of humankind and to the goal of shaping a better future. With some 1,500 members, the Leopoldina brings together outstanding scientists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries.

ERC Starting Grant for Prof. Dr. Alexander Schütz

18.12.2015

The research project "Calibration and integration of peripheral and foveal information in human vision" from Prof. Dr. Alexander Schütz was accepted by the European Research Council (ERC). He was granted an ERC Starting Grant worth 1,4 Million Euro.

Award of the Justus-Liebig-University for Dr. Katja Dörschner-Boyaci Ph. D.

27.11.2015

Dr. Katja Dörschner-Boyaci was awarded for her excellent research in the field of material perception with the price of the Justus-Liebig University Giessen which is endowed with 5.000 Euro.

PD Dr. Alexander Schütz appointed as professor at the University of Marburg

15.10.2015

PD Dr. Alexander Schütz has accepted his appointment as professor for General Psychology at the Phillips-Universität Marburg.

Award of the Kurt Koffka Medal to Prof. Roland S. Johansson

01.07.2015

We are pleased to award the Kurt Koffka Medal 2015 to Prof. Roland S. Johansson for his findings in the field of sensorimotor science.  

Prof. Roland S. Johansson (PhD, MD) from Umea University in Sweden focuses on the human sense of touch and its use for movement control. In numerous works, he has investigated and modelled in detail how the sense of touch, eye movements and memory work together in human handling of objects. His findings on the neuronal coding of felt events are also groundbreaking. Prof. Johansson has used his findings from basic research, among other things, to develop hand and arm prostheses together with researchers from the USA and Italy.

Dr. Katja Dörschner-Boyaci was awarded the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award

05.08.2014

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has singled out 11 international junior researchers for one of the best-endowed science awards in Germany: The winners will each receive up to 1.65 million EUR. Through this programme, the research talents receive risk capital for innovative projects during an early phase in their careers.

Dissertation Award for Dr. Matteo Toscani

21.11.2014

On the 21. November Dr. Matteo Toscani (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner) received an award from the JLU for his thesis with the title “Effect of fixation positions on perception of lightness and color”. He was rewarded for the best thesis during the academical year 2013/2014 in the areas of social and sport science as well as psychology.

Humboldt Research Award for Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Troje

04.11.2014

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has granted Prof. Nikolaus Troje (Queens University, Kingston, Canada) with a Humboldt Resarch Award. In 2015, Niko Troje will frequently visit the JLU Giessen (Prof.Gegenfurtner) as well as MPI for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen.

Humboldt Research Scholarship for Dr. David Souto

04.11.2014

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has granted Dr. David Souto (Leicester, England) with a research scholarship. Since September 2014 David Souto will be for one year at the JLU Giessen (Prof. Gegenfurtner) to continue his research.

Successful habilitation

Dr. Alexander C. Schütz successfully habilitated.

Winner of the 2013 Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award

Prof. Roland W. Fleming is the 2013 winner of the VSS Young Investigator Award. He will give a presentation at the VSS Awards Session on Monday, May 13 at 1:00 pm in the Royal Palm Ballroom.

Award of the Justus-Liebig-University for Prof. Roland W. Fleming, Ph. D.

Prof. Roland W. Fleming was awarded for his excellent research in the field of visual perception with the price of the Justus-Liebig University Giessen which is endowed with 5.000 Euro.

President of the Vision Science Society

Karl R. Gegenfurtner was elected as President of the international Vision Science Society.
He will hold the presidency until after the annual meeting in May 2013.

Dr. Weina Zhu appointed as professor in China

Intensive funding by the DFG´s Reinhart Koselleck-Program

Karl Gegenfurtner´s request for the funding of a project to investigate the perception of material properties has been granted. Within the framework of the Reinhart Koselleck-Program, an overall budget of 1,25 million Euro is now available for this project. The DFG (German Research Foundation) program is reserved for particularly innovative but also risky project ideas by excellent individual scientists.

Professor Karl Gegenfurtner was elected into the board of directors by the Vision Science Society. His 4-year term begins in June 2009.

Further informations about the Vision Sciences Society are available at http://www.visionsciences.org

A short excerpt from the website, summarizing the organization´s history and its aims:

The Vision Sciences Society is a nonprofit membership organization of scientists who are interested in the functional aspects of vision. VSS was founded in 2001 by Ken Nakayama (Harvard University) with the help of Tom Sanocki (University of South Florida). The main purpose of the society is to hold an annual meeting that brings together in one forum scientists from the broad range of disciplines that contribute to vision science, including visual psychophysics, neuroscience, computational vision and cognitive psychology. The scientific content of the meetings reflects the breadth of topics in modern vision science, from visual coding to perception, recognition and the visual control of action, as well as the recent development of new methodologies from cognitive psychology, computer vision and neuroimaging.

The Vision Sciences Society is committed to progress in understanding vision, and its relation to cognition, action and the brain. Our primary goal is to host a yearly meeting where both new and established investigators from diverse disciplines and scientific perspectives present and discuss their work in a relaxed informal setting. Our interdisciplinary nature is reflected by the Board of Directors and Abstract Review Committee

Karl Gegenfurtner now on the editorial board of Perception

Karl Gegenfurtner joined the editorial board of Perception in April 2009.

http://www.perceptionweb.com/per_contacts.html

Klaus Tschira Prize for Miriam Spering

11.10.2007
Miriam Spering was awarded the Klaus Tschira Prize for Understandable Science 2007 in the category Neuroscience. Her contribution was entitled "When the brain is at the wheel".

http://www.klaus-tschira-preis.info/archiv.php

Karl Gegenfurtner now on the editorial Board of Vision Research

01.05.2007

Karl Gegenfurtner joined the editorial Board of Vision Research in May 2007.

http://www.elsevier.com/locate/visres

Miriam Spering wins dissertation competition

Miriam Spering won the dissertation competition of the General Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society 2007...

http://www.fgap.de/disswett/dw07-index.html

PD Dr. Dirk Kerzel appointed as professor at the University of Geneva

01.08.2004

PD Dr. Dirk Kerzel has accepted his appointment as professor for Cognitive Psychology at the University of Geneva.

Heinz Meier-Leibnitz Award for Dirk Kerzel

Mr. Dirk Kerzel (Uni Giessen) has won the DFG´s (German Research Foundation) Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Award.

http://www.dfg.de/aktuelles_presse/preise/leibnitz_preis/2003/kerzel/

Karl Gegenfurtner is now in editorial board of the Journal of Physiology

Karl Gegenfurtner was incorporated into the editorial board of the Journal of Physiology in June 2002.

http://jp.physoc.org/