Institute for Neurobiology

Lena Veit

I am a tenure track junior professor and Emmy Noether group leader for Neurobiology of Vocal Communication. My lab studies the neural basis of flexible song sequencing. I did my postdoc with Michael Brainard at UCSF studying context-dependent song learning in Bengalese finches. As a PhD student with Andreas Nieder at the University of Tübingen we established electrophysiology in crows to study the neural basis of executive control in birds. I did my master’s thesis with Michale Fee at MIT, recording the development of respiratory patterns for song in juvenile zebra finches.

Avani Koparkar

PhD student

I'm a BS-MS graduate from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, India. I have always been interested in neuroethology and have worked with Dr. Raghav Rajan on zebra finches at IISER Pune. I did my master's thesis with Dr. Daniela Vallentin at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen on the role of inhibitory interneurons in song learning in zebra finches.

Jacqueline Göbl

PhD student

Jacqueline did her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Neurobiology at the Univeristy of Tübingen. She did her master thesis in the lab of Prof. Benda, studying communication in a wild population of electric fish in Colombia.

Lioba Fortkord

PhD student

Lioba did her BSc and MSc in Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen. In her master thesis in our group she studied the influence of social context on song sequence learning in Bengalese finches.

Priya Binwal

PhD student

Priya graduated with a BS-MS dual degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India. For her master's thesis, she studied the songs of superb fairy-wrens with Dr. Diane Colombelli-Negrel (Flinders University, Adelaide).

Franziska Heubach

PhD student

Franzi did her BSc in Biology and MSc in Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen. She did her masters thesis in our lab and won a scholarship from the Landesgraduiertenförderung for her PhD.

Abhilipsa Das

PhD student

Abhilipsa did her BS-MS in Biology at IISER Pune, India, and has performed undergraduate and masters thesis research in the lab of Raghav Rajan. She has investigated the role of neuronal activity in primary motor nucleus RA on respiratory patterns in Bengalese finches and zebra finches.

Max Bergmann

Master student

Max is a master student in Neurobiology and currently a Master student in our group

Leo Weiss

student technician

Leo is a master student in Neurobiology and currently a technician in our group.

Sid Frey

student technician

Sidney is a master student in Neurobiology and currently a technician in our group

Alumni

Leo Weiss (technician), now MSc student in Benda lab
Philipp Holzmann (B.Sc. thesis)
Nils Riekers (M.Sc. thesis), now PhD student in Information Systems at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences
Akseli Ilmanen (lab rotation), now PhD student in Andreas Nieder lab (Tübingen)
Lena Stöckl (technician), now PhD student in Benda lab
Alex Wendt (M.Sc. thesis), now PhD student in Jan Benda lab (Tübingen)
Thomas Eberl (B.Sc. thesis), now M.Sc. student in Munich
Simon Bauerle (B.Sc. thesis), now M.Sc. student in Michale Fee lab at MIT
Yirong Xiong (lab rotation), now PhD student at Janelia Research Campus/Johns Hopkins University graduate program
Csilla Pataki (M.Sc. student), now at Jörgen Kornfeld lab at MPI Biological Intelligence
Yuhang Wang (technician), now PhD student at Richard Hahnloser lab at ETH Zürich
Shanqian Ma (technician)