Neurobiologist Hannah Monyer Receives Lautenschläger Research Prize

Hannah Monyer's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that lead to synchronous neural network activities and support cognitive processes learning and remembering. "In this field, Hannah Moyer combines intelligent questions with highly innovative experimental approaches and does not shy away from expanding beyond the boundaries of her own discipline to uncover the fundamental secrets of neural networks. She can rightly be called a pioneer of modern systemic neuro and behavioural science anchored in molecular biology," says Manfred Lautenschläger of this year's prize winner.

Since 1999 Hannah Monyer has been Medical Director of Clinical Neurobiology at Heidelberg University Hospital – a cooperational division of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, and the German Cancer Research Center. Monyer was instrumental in several groundbreaking and internationally highly visible discoveries, especially related to the so-called inhibitory interneurons and projection neurons – the brain's "master clocks". She has recently turned her attention to the function of specific inhibitory interneurons in neural "circuits" that exhibit an effect up to the behavioural level.

Hannah Monyer studied medicine and earned her PhD at Heidelberg University. She worked as a resident physician in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at in of the Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, subsequently joining the Department of Paediatric Neurology at the University Children's Hospital in Lübeck. In 1986, Hannah Monyer joined Stanford University (USA) as a postdoctoral research fellow and three years later came to the Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University. She received her authorisation to teach biochemistry in 1993, becoming an endowed professor the following year and establishing her own research group. In addition to other prestigious awards for her achievements, Hannah Monyer received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation in 2004.

The Lautenschläger Research Prize is awarded every two years for special accomplishments in leading-edge research. The distinction is intended to honour scientists from Heidelberg University as well as other national and international researchers with special ties to te Heidelberg University through scientific cooperation. Entrepreneur Manfred Lautenschläger established the award in 2001 to foster active researchers in the discovery process. An interdisciplinary board of internationally networked scientists selects the potential prize recipients, who can be nominated for the Lautenschläger Research Prize from any discipline.

The awards ceremony for Germany's most highly endowed research prize from a private donor was originally scheduled for the beginning of December 2020 but because of pandemic restrictions has been rescheduled to 7 May 2021.

Source: Press release of the Heidelberg University