About me
Understanding system level functions, realized by the coordinated activity of large numbers of biological elements, constitutes one of the greatest and most exciting challenges to science in the 21st century.

My research aim is to develop a principled understanding of such phenomena specifically in the nervous system, where it might allow to relate the coordinated activity of single neurons to our cognitive abilities.

I am a C.V. Starr Fellow and recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome CASI award. I work at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, making use of Calcium imaging and electrophysiology to study neuronal activity in mice in virtual reality. I work in the laboratories of David Tank and Carlos Brody and am also part of the BRAIN CoGS team, a multi-lab collaboration to understand the brain-wide mechanisms of working memory.

Background
I did my undergraduate studies in physics and philosophy at the University of Würzburg in Germany, supported by the Max Weber Program. I then obtained two Master degrees, one in 2011, working in condensed matter physics from Rutgers, and one in 2013, working in theoretical neuroscience in Göttingen. In 2018, I completed my PhD research in the labs of Fred Wolf at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and Walter Stühmer at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen. During this time, I was supported by a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship, and I was awarded the Otto Hahn medal of the Max Planck Society.

Contact
Dr. Manuel Schottdorf
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Washington Rd.
Princeton, NJ 08540