Julius Bernstein

The BMBF has bestowed the title of "Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience" to honour the scientific achievements of Julius Bernstein, a German physiologist.

In his "Membrane Theory" of 1902, Julius Bernstein gave the earliest biophysical explanation of propagating action potentials and thereby provided the first truly quantitative theory in electrophysiology. Since then, Neuroscience has become a vast and growing area in natural sciences devoted to unraveling the function of the brain as one of the most complex results of biological evolution. A thorough analysis of brain function still continues to be an outstanding scientific challenge.

Today a big step in the process of advancing our understanding is expected from the highly dynamic and interdisciplinary research line of Neurotechnology. This discipline combines experiments with mathematical models, computer simulation and data analysis on the basis of well-defined theoretical concepts hopefully resulting in applications (e.g. in Neuroprosthetics). It makes available a scientific language and methodology that can be used across disciplines ranging from neurobiology, cognitive science, systems biology to information technology. This task requires focused interdisciplinary cooperation between engineers and theoreticians with a long-standing involvement in neuroscience collaborating with advanced experimental groups in order to investigate and design complete Neuro-Bionic Closed-Loop Systems, neuro-sensing and neuro-stimulation strategies.