The Virtual Brain

Viktor Jirsa studied Physics and Philosophy in Stuttgart, Germany and is Director of Research at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and Director of the Inserm UMR1106 Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes (INS).

Since the late 90s, Viktor has made pioneering contributions to the understanding of how network structure constrains the emergence of functional dynamics using methods from nonlinear dynamic system theory and computational neuroscience. His work laid the theoretical basis for the connectome and its associated large-scale modeling efforts.

Viktor has significant experience in coordinating national and international research consortia and organizations. Since 2005 he has been the leader of the neuroinformatics project “The Virtual Brain” involving 11 laboratories worldwide.

He is work package leader in the European Flagship “Human Brain Project” and is responsible for the coordination of the modeling efforts across the various disciplines including its clinical applications (>500 investigators).

Randy McIntosh holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience, and is presently Director of the Institute for Neuroscience & Neurotechnology INN and BC Leadership Chair in Neuroscience and Technology Transfer Across the Lifespan. Randy is also a Professor of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University.

Randy's work links cognitive and theoretical neuroscience by emphasizing how network operations give rise to human mental processes. His efforts have also produced unique analytic approaches, such as Structural Equation Modeling and Partial Least Squares, that have helped other researchers study the brain from a network perspective.

With Viktor and other close collaborators, Randy secured the initial investment from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to bring together computational, cognitive and clinical neuroscientists to set the stage for The Virtual Brain.

Petra Ritter studied medicine at the Charite University Medicine Berlin. She spent a large part of her clinical traineeships and practical year abroad: at the universities UCLA and UCSD in Los Angeles and San Diego, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

In 2002, she received her license to practise medicine. In 2004, she completed her doctoral thesis at the Charité and in 2010 she received habilitation in Experimental Neurology.

After being Max Planck Minerva research group leader from 2011 to 2015, she assumed the lifetime position of BIH Johanna Quandt Professor for Brain Simulation at Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, one of Europe’s largest university hospitals.

Since 2017, she is Director of the Brain Simulation Section at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Petra holds a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. Besides The Virtual Brain, she has lead and co-lead several other successful projects: The national Bernstein Focus State Dependencies of Learning, comprising 7 research groups with focus in Computational Neuroscience and together with Randy Mcintosh My Virtual Dream, a participatory public outreach project that combines Art and Science.

Petra particularly focuses on the translational aspect of The Virtual Brain and the development of accessible technologies. She has successfully setup the first TVB startup BrainModes App that delivers TVB technology to the end user.

Jochen Mersmann holds a M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Stuttgart, specializing in neural networks and synergetics. Jochen is a highly experienced software architect with broad knowledge in commercial and scientific platforms, tools and best practices.

Already during his time at university, Jochen founded Codebox for custom software development in 1994 and quickly grew it with major corporate clients, leading the development of many large-scale, mission-critical applications for various industries.

During a hiatus from 2000 to 2004 he was invited into the management team of CSC and IBM Germany as leading system architect, successfully delivering several high-impact, large-scale solutions for Fortune 500 clients.

For many years, Codebox has been actively performing research and development in the field of biologically-inspired computation. Humans and other organisms exhibit complex social behavior, controlled by brain systems which have nothing to do with von-Neumann-architectures – nevertheless all computers we use in daily life are based on exactly this architecture.

That's why Codebox is a sponsor of promising initiatives such as The Virtual Brain in leading research centers worldwide, collaborating on mutual research and development projects, and also performing in-house technology development.