Björn Brembs

BIOGRAPHY

Björn Brembs worked in the capacity of Associate Faculty Member with Randolf Menzel from July 2009 to May 2010.

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Heisenberg Fellow of the DFG, Institute of Zoology - Neurogenetics, Freie Universität Berlin, 2009-present

EDUCATION:
• Dr rer nat, Department of Genetics and Neurobiology, Universität Würzburg, 2000
• Postdoc, Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, University of Texas, Houston Health Science Center, 2000-2003
• Independent Researcher, Institute of Biology – Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, 2003-2009
• Habilitation in Zoology, Freie Universität Berlin, 2009

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
• Heisenberg Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
• November 20, 2006: I accepted an offer by PLoS ONE to join their editorial board as academic editor
• June 25, 2008: I accepted the offer by the Journal of Visualized Experiments to join their editorial board as associate editor
• September 19, 2008: I accepted the offer by Frontiers in Neuroscience to join their editorial board as review editor
• May 9, 2002: I accepted the offer by the new journal 'Evolutionary Psychology' to join their editorial board

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
On the surface, my projects may seem randomly scattered across the biological sciences. But there's an underlying theme concerning the general organization of behavior with regards to reward, punishment and decision making: How do brains accomplish adaptive behavioral choice? All animals possess a repertoire of inborn behaviors and continuously modify and adjust them to meet the requirements of the environment by learning. To study these processes, I use operant (instrumental) conditioning paradigms and contrast them with classical (Pavlovian) conditioning situations in flies (Drosophila) and snails (Aplysia). Such comparisons highlight the differences and similarities between behavioral and environmental learning, the two forms of predictive learning. Predicting the future is a vital information guiding animals in their decision of what to do next.

HOME PAGE
http://brembs.net/