BMI Prize
2024
- Dr.Simona Adele Garobbio and Dr.Domenic Burger
For the first time, the Brain Mind Institute (BMI) has awarded in 2024 its prestigious Thesis Prize to two exceptional PhD graduates, Simona Adele Garobbio and Domenic Burger, recognizing the outstanding quality of their research.
Simona and Domenic have both conducted groundbreaking work in their respective fields. Simona Garobbio’s thesis was supervised by Professor Michael Herzog, while Domenic Burger’s thesis was supervised by Professor Henning Stahlberg.
2023
- Dr. Elena Beanato recognized for noninvasive deep brain stimulation research.
In 2023, the BMI Best Thesis Prize has been awarded to Dr Elena Beanato, who carried out her doctoral work under the supervision of Professor Friedhelm Hummel. Her thesis is titled “Noninvasive deep brain stimulation to modulate human behavior by means of transcranial temporal interference electrical stimulation” and she presented it on January 17, 2024.
Professor Johannes Gräff, director of EDNE at that time, praises her work as follows: “Ms Beanato presented an extremely high-quality thesis. It is immaculately written and boasts with high quality figures. But most importantly, her thesis contains a number of highly novel studies, which were all high-risk high-gain. The fact that she managed to complete such a big volume of high quality work speaks to her dedication and potential as a leader in the field.”
To which Professor Hummel adds: “This body of work is entirely cross-disciplinary. Elena brought together neuroscience, neuroengineering, computational science and neurorehabilitation to answer central questions about the functioning of the human brain. One of her studies showed that non-invasive modulation of the deep structures in the healthy human brain is actually technically possible, namely by combining temporal interference stimulation and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This represents a huge advance both for neuroscientific research, as well as for potential rehabilitation interventions.”
Part of Dr Beanato’s work has been published in Nature Neuroscience (read EPFL’s press release here).
2021
- Dr. Aline Cretenoud recognized for work on visual perception and illusions.
The 2021 Brain Mind Institute (BMI) Best Thesis prize was awarded to Aline Cretenoud, who carried out her doctoral work under the supervision of Professor Michael Herzog. Her thesis is titled “Individual differences in visual (mis)perception: a multivariate statistical approach” and examines the multidimensionality of the structure underlying visual perception, with a special emphasis on visual illusions. Her research measured susceptibility to various visual illusions as well as performance in basic visual abilities.
Doctoral Program Thesis Distinction
2025
- Alessandro MARIN VARGAS – Reverse engineering primate sensorimotor control with machine learning
- Ayberk OZKIRLI – Fifty Shades of Vision: How Does Spatiotemporal Context Influence Perception?
2024
- Steffen SCHNEIDER – Robust machine learning for neuroscientific inference
2023
- Galina LIMORENKO – Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Complexity of Tau pathology
- Marco MILANO – Targeted regeneration of spinal cord neurons across a complete injury restores walking
2022
- Lucie DIXSAUT – Where does the engram come from? Study of prefrontal cortex inputs during memory consolidation
- Georgios FOUSTOUKOS – Anatomical and functional characterization of neocortical circuits involved in transforming whisker sensory processing into goal-directed licking
2021
- Naïg CHENAIS – Photovoltaic stimulation of retinal microcircuit for vision restoration
EPFL Doctorate Award
2025
- Steffen SCHNEIDER – Robust machine learning for neuroscientific inference