Our congratulations go to Matthias Baumann, who is currently the latest PhD graduate of the lab! He was just awarded the 2026 Doctoral Prize by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at our university. The prize was presented to Matthias at the university’s latest graduation ceremony this summer.
Matthias had submitted an outstanding PhD thesis, which received highest honors, near the end of last year. His thesis covered several seminal contributions, ranging from uncovering the retinal origins of saccadic suppression to discovering that motor commands for eye movements in the superior colliculus actually also embed within them a visual sensory signal. These contributions, and others, are now recognized by the university with this latest award, which continues a streak of past recognitions for Matthias’ work. For example, during his doctoral studies in our lab, Matthias won the prestigious Attempto Prize. In the same year, he also won the Paper of the Year Award by the Hertie Institute!
To read more about Matthias’ thesis, follow this link.
Moreover, Matthias was, and still is, involved in several other publications describing discoveries that were outside the scope of his thesis. These can be read from our Publications page.
Congratulations once again to Matthias, and we wish him further success in the future.