29.11.2024 LOEWE-Start-Professorship at the University of Giessen: Dr Katharina Dobs researches how we recognize people and objects
State programme provides around 1.9 million euros
Wiesbaden. The perceptual researcher Dr. Katharina Dobs receives a LOEWE-Start professorship at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. For their research in applied computer science with a focus on cognitive systems, around 1.9 million euros of LOEWE funds will be provided over a total of six years. Hessen also strengthens the full-fledged contribution of the research network "The Adaptive Mind" to the excellence strategy of the federal government and the states.
„We recognize friends in a crowd or select food when shopping: for these self-evident skills, our brain must quickly visually recognize and interpret complex scenes. How it does this, Dr Katharina Dobs investigates. As an internationally recognized expert for visual perception mechanisms in biological and artificial systems, she enriches the Hessian research landscape. Your work in the Adaptive Mind cluster of excellence, which has been requested, is a decisive factor in our ability to compete for the strategy of excellence," said Timon Gremmels, Minister of Science.
One focus of Dr Dobs' work is on functional specialization in the human brain. This phenomenon describes the tendency of certain brain regions to adopt visual processes such as face recognition. In their research, Dr Dobs and her team combine imaging techniques from neuroscience with algorithms from artificial intelligence (AI). They want to decode the neural processes that underlie the visual perception of humans. They also investigate the adaptability of the human visual system to natural environments. The aim is to broaden our scientific understanding of human perception, action and thinking. The findings are also intended to contribute to the development of more adaptive and efficient AI models.
„Dr Katharina Dobs explores the mechanisms of human visual perception. With her interdisciplinary research on functional specialization, the psychologist and computer scientist provides valuable information on the organization of the human brain", says Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz, President of the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. We are glad that with the support of the state of Hessen and the LOEWE-Start-Professorship, we were able to appoint this committed researcher to the JLU. It enriches the work in the Cluster of Excellence 'The Adaptive Mind' with its innovative research approaches."
After studying computer science and psychology, Dr Dobs earned her doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. With a scholarship from the German Research Foundation, she then worked at the Centre National de la Recherche in Toulouse. Then she moved to the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. Her research has been awarded many times: in 2023 she applied for one of the coveted Starting Grants from the European Research Council. 2024 she received the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Prize. Dobs currently leads the HMWK-funded "Visual Cognition & Computational Neuroscience Lab" at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. She is also running two sub-projects of the Collaborative Research Center "Cardinal mechanisms of perception" (SFB/TRR 135).
What are the LOEWE professorships?
With LOEWE top professorships, excellent internationally renowned researchers can receive between 1.5 and 3 million euros for five years to equip their professorship.
LOEWE Start professorships are aimed at excellent scientists in the early stages of their careers, which are won or held here with an equipment of up to two million euros for the period of six years for the science location Hessen.
The LOEWE transfer professorships, currently in pilot phase, support researchers in developing application-related results in exchange with partners from practice so that they successfully solve social, cultural or economic issues. The funding amounts to up to one million euros for a professorship for five years.
