PhD Program Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience


The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Göttingen hosts a graduate program in "Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience" (PTCN). This PhD program is part of the Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB) and is conducted jointly by the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, the German Primate Center, and the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen.

Understanding the computational capabilities of neural systems requires a unique mix of theoretical, computational and biological skills that were in the past distributed across different disciplines, mainly biology, physics, computer science, psychology, and medicine. Our PhD program is designed to bring these different fields together thus creating a new generation of scientists that are equally at home with the thoroughly quantitative and mathematical mode of thought of the exact sciences and with the complexities of real nervous systems.

To cover the interdisciplinary nature of this program we welcome national and international students with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, computer science, medicine, and mathematics. Teaching language is English. After an initial period of course work students complete a PhD by research in their chosen field. The computational neuroscience community in Göttingen is offering innovative courses in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience. These include lectures in neural networks and theoretical neuroscience, seminars and practical courses on topics in theoretical neuroscience, and an annual advanced summer school in computational neuroscience. PTCN extends these offers and shapes them into a comprehensive and interdisciplinary curriculum.

For further information please visit the PTCN website.


The members of the BCCN Göttingen offer a varity of lectures and seminars at the BSc and MSc levels for the following programs: Physics, Mathematics, Applied Computer Science, Applied Data Science, Neuroscience, Psychology and Material Science. For more information on the differnt courses please visit the catalogue of modules .

  • Lecture: Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience: Collective dynamics of biological neural Networks I
    BSc/MSc Physics; MSc Mathematic, MSc Applied Computer Science
    Wolf, Wibral, Gollisch

  • Internship: Forschungshauptpraktikum Biophysik und Physik komplexer Systeme / Advanced Research Lab Course in Biophysics and Physics of Complex Systems
    Msc Physics
    Enderlein, Geisel, Kree, Müller, Parlitz, Schmidt, Timme, Wolf, Wörgötter, Zippelius

  • Exercise: Practical course on Computer Vision and Robotics
    BSc/MSc Physics
    Wörgötter

  • Lecture with exercise: Mathematical Data Science, BSc Applied Data Science
    Deep Learning
    MSc Mathematics, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Science, MSc Physics, BSc
    Ecker

  • Seminar: Spezielle Probleme der Biophysik, Fluoreszensspektroskopie und –mikroskopie
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics
    Enderlein, Gregor

  • Lecture: Theoretical Biophysics
    BSc/MSc Physics, MSc Matter to Life, MSc Material Science
    Enderlein, Neef

  • Lecture: Neurosciences
    MSc Neuroscience
    Enderlein, Gollisch, Fiala, Moser, Treue

  • Exercise: Neurosciences
    MSc Neuroscience
    Enderlein, Schacht, Treue

  • Exercise: Neurobiology 1
    MSc Developmental, Neural and Behavioral Biology
    Gollisch, Göpert, Fiala, Löwel

  • Lecture: Neurobiology 1
    MSc Developmental, Neural and Behavioral Biology; MSc Microbiology and Biochemistry
    Göpert, Fiala, Löwel

  • Lecture: Einfuehrung in die Magnetresonanz-Tomografie
    Advanced students in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Medicine
    Frahm

  • Seminar: From vision to action
    MSc Psychology
    Gail, Scherberger, Gail

  • Lecture: From vision to action
    MSc Psychology, MSc Microbiology and Biochemistry, MSc Developmental, Neural and Behavioral Biology
    Gail, Scherberger, Gail

  • Seminar: Seminar zur statistischen Mechanik komplexer Systeme
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics, MSc Material Science
    Kree

  • Lecture: Hard problems in soft matter: Theory and numerics of active colloids
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics, MSc Material Science
    Kree

  • Exercise: Hard problems in soft matter: Theory and numerics of active colloids
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics, MSc Material Science
    Kree

  • Lecture: Development and plasticity of the nervous system
    MSc Developmental, Neural and Behavioral Biology, MSc Microbiology and Biochemistry, MSc Applied Computer Sciences
    Löwel

  • Seminar: Nonlinear dynamics, time series analysis, and machine learning
    BSc/ MSc Physics
    Parlitz

  • Lecture: Kognitionspsychologie
    BSc Biology, BSc Molecular Medicine, BSc Biochemistry, BSc Applied Computer Science, MSc Applied Computer Science
    Schacht

  • Intern: Biokognition
    BSc Biology
    Schacht

  • Seminar: Vertiefung Affektive Neurowissenschaften, 1 und 2
    MSc Psychology
    Schacht

  • Lecture: Biologische Psychologie I
    BSc Psychology, BSc Biology, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Sciences, BSc Biochemistry, BSc Biological Diversity and Ecology, MSc Physics
    Gail, Treue

  • Lecture: Biologische Psychologie II/ Kognitive Neurowissenschaften
    BSc Psychology, BSc Biology, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Sciences, BSc Biochemistry, BSc Biological Diversity and Ecology, MSc Physics
    Gail, Treue

  • Lecture: Biologische Psychologie: Neurowissenschaften
    BSc Psychology, BSc Biology, Biochemistry, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Science
    Gail, Treue

  • Lecture: Advanced Computational Neuroscience I
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics
    Wörgötter

  • Seminar: Proseminar Computational Neuroscience/Neuroinformatik
    BSc/MSc Physics, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Science
    Wörgötter

  • Seminar: Seminar Computational Neuroscience/Neuroinformatik
    MSc Physics, MSc Applied Computer Science, MSc Mathematics
    Wörgötter

  • Lecture: Introduction to Computer Vision and Robotics
    BSc/MSc Physics
    Wörgötter

  • Lecture: Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience: Collective dynamics of biological neural Networks II
    BSc/MSc Physics; MSc Mathematic, MSc Applied Computer Science
    Priesemann, Wolf

  • Lecture: Computational Neuroscience: Basics
    BSc /MSc Physics, BSc/MSc Mathematics, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Science
    Wörgötter

  • Seminar: Spezielle Probleme der Biophysik, Fluoreszensspektroskopie und –mikroskopie
    MSc Physics, MSc Mathematics
    Enderlein, Gregor

  • Lecture: Einfuehrung in die Magnetresonanz-Tomografie
    Advanced students in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Medicine
    Frahm

  • Seminar: Proseminar Computational Neuroscience/Neuroinformatik
    BSc/MSc Physics, BSc/MSc Applied Computer Science
    Wörgötter

  • Seminar: Seminar Computational Neuroscience/Neuroinformatik
    MSc Physics, MSc Applied Computer Science, MSc Mathematics
    Wörgötter



The members of the BCCN Göttingen annually have offered a course on Computational Neuroscience (CNS) to provide focused training for graduate students and young researchers on cutting edge theoretical concepts and computational methods in all areas of research in neuroscience.


Past courses:

2nd Advanced Computational Neuroscience School - Mathematical approaches to neural circuit dynamics

September 6 - 16, 2016

The orchestrated interplay of thousands of nerve cells represents, processes and stores information in human and animal brains. Technological advances like optogenetics, connectomics and cellular resolution imaging provide tools to observe and manipulate the activity of such neuronal assemblies. These developments open new avenues for the interplay of theory and experiment in neuroscience and challenge the development of mathematical approaches for the systematic dissection and understanding of network processing. The Göttingen advanced computational neuroscience summer school provides focused training on cutting edge theoretical concepts and ideas in this field. The school features intensive lectures and advanced theoretical problem work by world leading experts. In contrast to most other courses in computational neuroscience, it is designed for participants with a mathematical and quantitative background.

Speakers

  • Gilles Laurent, MPI for brain research, Frankfurt
  • Magnus Richardson, University of Warwick, Warwick - abstract
  • Moritz Helias, Jülich Research Center, Jülich - abstract
  • Misha Tsodyks, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot - abstract
  • Vijay Balasubramanian, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
  • Jason Kerr, Ceasar, Bonn
  • Tobias Moser, Göttingen University, Göttingen - title
  • Wolf Singer, MPI for brain research, Frankfurt - abstract
  • Erwin Neher, MPI for biophysical chemistry, Göttingen

    Organizers

    Agostina Palmigiano
    Joscha Liedtke
    Manuel Schottdorf
    Rainer Engelken
    Jens Wilting

  • 1st Advanced Computational Neuroscience School - Theoretical perspectives on neural assemblies

    September 2 - 12, 2015

    The orchestrated interplay of thousands of nerve cells represents, processes and stores information in human and animal brains. Technological advances like optogenetics, connectomics and cellular resolution imaging provide tools to observe and manipulate the activity of such neuronal assemblies. These developments open new avenues for the interplay of theory and experiment in neuroscience and challenge the development of mathematical approaches for the systematic dissection and understanding of network processing. The Göttingen advanced computational neuroscience summer school provides focused training on cutting edge theoretical concepts and ideas in this field. The school features intensive lectures and advanced theoretical problem work by world leading experts. In contrast to most other courses in computational neuroscience, it is designed for participants with a mathematical and quantitative background.

    Speakers

  • Moritz Helmstaedter, MPI for brain research, Frankfurt
  • Maneesh Sahani, University College London, London
  • Yoram Burak, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
  • John Hertz, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
  • Sara Solla, Northwestern University, Chicago
  • Barry Lee, SUNY College of Optometry, New York
  • Alexander Gail, German Primate Center, Göttingen
  • Jack Cowan, University of Chicago, Chicago
  • David Hansel, Uni­ver­sité Paris Descartes, Paris
  • Walter Stühmer, MPI for experimental medicine, Göttingen

    Organizers

    Maximilian Puelma-Touzel
    Agostina Palmigiano
    Joscha Liedtke
    Manuel Schottdorf
    Rainer Engelken

  • 12th Summer Course on Computational Neuroscience

    September 8 - 12, 2014

    The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with a knowledge of the major theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. One of the main objectives of the course is to enable participants from any field of neuroscience to study recent research papers on their own. Along with traditional lectures that provide an overview of important aspects and recent developments, students gather in small groups and study one out of a number of recent research papers that are related to the respective topic. The "self-study" is supervised by the speaker who will encourage students to apply and extend what they have learned in the lectures towards achieving deeper insight into the main ideas of the paper. This combination of lecturing and interactive learning has proven effective over the previous years (1999 and 2001 at Bochum, 2003 - 2012 at Göttingen) at balancing depth with the time constraints of the course.

    Speakers

  • Carl van Vreeswijk, Paris Descartes University, Paris
  • Claudia Clopath, Imperial College, London, England
  • Gasper Tkacik, IST Austria, Vienna, Austria
  • Alfonso Renart, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Srdjan Ostojic, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France

    Organizers

    Maximilian Puelma-Touzel
    Agostina Palmigiano
    Joscha Liedtke

  • 11th Summer Course on Computational Neuroscience

    September 2 - 6, 2013

    The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with a knowledge of the major theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. One of the main objectives of the course is to enable participants from any field of neuroscience to study recent research papers on their own. Along with traditional lectures that provide an overview of important aspects and recent developments, students gather in small groups and study one out of a number of recent research papers that are related to the respective topic. The "self-study" is supervised by the speaker who will encourage students to apply and extend what they have learned in the lectures towards achieving deeper insight into the main ideas of the paper. This combination of lecturing and interactive learning has proven effective over the previous years (1999 and 2001 at Bochum, 2003 - 2012 at Göttingen) at balancing depth with the time constraints of the course.

    Speakers

  • Naftali Tishby, Hebrew University, Israel
  • Moritz Helias, Juelich Research Centre, Germany
  • Benjamin Lindner, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
  • Bernhard Nessler, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany
  • Bathellier Brice, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Organizers

    Maximilian Puelma-Touzel
    Agostina Palmigiano
    David Hofmann

  • 10th Summer Course on Computational Neuroscience

    September 3 - 7, 2012

    The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with working knowledge of theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. The speakers will provide an overview on important aspects and recent developments in their fields of expertise by means of three-hour tutorials. In addition to the tutorials, participants will gather in small groups and study one out of a number of recent research papers that are related to the respective tutorial. The "self-study" will be supervised by the speakers who will encourage students to apply and extend what they have learned in the tutorials towards achieving deeper insight into the main ideas of the paper. The results of the self-study will be shared and discussed with other participants and the speakers during the presentations. This combination of lecturing and interactive learning has proven effective over the previous years (1999 and 2001 at Bochum, 2003 - 2011 at Göttingen) at balancing depth with the time constraints of the course.

    Speakers

  • Susanne Schreiber, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
  • J. Michael Herrmann, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK
  • Surya Ganguli, Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, USA
  • Adrienne Fairhall, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, USA
  • Matthias Bethge, Computational Vision and Neuroscience Group, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany

    Organizers

    David Hofmann
    Agostina Palmigiano
    Maximilian Puelma-Touzel
  • 9th Fall Course on Computational Neuroscience

    September 19 - 23, 2011

    The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with working knowledge of theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. The speakers will provide an overview on important aspects and recent developments in their fields of expertise by means of three-hour tutorials. In addition to the tutorials, participants will gather in small groups and study one out of a number of recent research papers that are related to the respective tutorial. The "self-study" will be supervised by the speakers who will encourage students to apply and extend what they have learned in the tutorials towards achieving deeper insight into the main ideas of the paper. The results of the self-study will be shared and discussed with other participants and the speakers during the presentations. This combination of lecturing and interactive learning has proven effective over the previous years (1999 and 2001 at Bochum, 2003 - 2010 at Göttingen) at balancing depth with the time constraints of the course.

    Speakers

  • Rainer Friedrich, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
  • Michael J. Gutnick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
  • Robert Gütig, Max-Planck-Institut for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
  • Jason Kerr, Neural Population Imaging, Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik, Tübingen, Germany
  • David McAlpine, Ear Institute, School of Life & Medical Sciences, University College London, United Kingdom
  • Sara Solla, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA

    Organizer

    David Hofmann

  • 8th Fall Course on Computational Neuroscience

    September 20 - 24, 2010

    The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with working knowledge of theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. The speakers provide an overview on important aspects and recent developments in their fields of expertise by means of three-hour tutorials. In addition to the tutorials, participants will gather in small groups and study one out of a number of recent research papers that are related to the respective tutorial. The "self-study" will be supervised by the speakers such that (based on the introduction given in the tutorials) a profound insight in the main ideas can be obtained. The results of the self-study will be shared with other participants and discussed with them and the speakers during the presentations. The particular form of the course has proven successful in previous courses (1999 and 2001 at Bochum, 2003 - 2009 at Göttingen). It combines lecturing with an active interaction with the main ideas of the topical fields in a way which has proven efficient given the time constraints of the course.

    Speakers

  • Daniel A. Butts, Department of Biology and NACS, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Sophie Deneve, Ecole Normale Superieur, Paris, Group for Neural Theory
  • Hansjörg Scherberger, Research Group Neurobiology, German Primate Center Göttingen
  • Elad Schneidman, Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
  • Susanne Still, University of Hawaii, Department of Information and Computer Sciences

    Organizers

    David Hofmann
    Hecke Schrobsdorff