Cyriel Pennartz

At the University of Amsterdam, he co-develops curricula and courses in Psychobiology (Bachelor), Biomedical Sciences (Bachelor), Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Master) and founded the Master track Cognitive Neurobiology and Clinical Neurophysiology. At the national level, he served for instance as co-leader of the National Science Agenda section on Brain, Behavior & Cognition (Neurolab.nl) with [Eveline Crone] and [Andrea Evers]. Since 2015, he joined the EU FET Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) through an open call, and continues to lead HBP's Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience Research. Representing these disciplines, he was elected member of the main governing body of HBP, the Scientific and Infrastructure Board. Pennartz received various awards, grants and honours, for example:

In 2003 he was appointed professor in Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, where he currently leads a group of ~35 people. His main goal is to advance our understanding of multisensory perception, learning and memory and consciousness by integrating experimental, theoretical and computational approaches to neuroscience. To achieve this, the group develops novel techniques for multi-area electrophysiology, computer simulations of brain processes, analytical tools and causal interventions. Pennartz published a theory on consciousness known as Neurorepresentationalism. Using predictive processing principles, this theory characterizes conscious experience as a multimodally rich, spatially encompassing representation of one's world, including one's own body. Recently his work has been ramifying into the clinical domain, studying disorders of consciousness and memory, and into neurotechnology, developing new methods to combat consequences of stroke.

In 1994 he initiated research on the cellular electrophysiology of the brain's circadian clock as tenured group leader at the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research.

Cyriel Marie Antoine Pennartz (born October 7, 1963) is a Dutch neuroscientist serving as professor and head of the Department of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is known for his research on memory, motivation, circadian rhythms, perception and consciousness. Pennartz’ work uses a multidisciplinary combination of techniques to understand the relationships between distributed neural activity and cognition, including in vivo electrophysiology and optical imaging, animal behavior and computational modelling.