Welcome Thilo and Kari
The Department of Psychology would like to welcome two new faculty members, Thilo Womelsdorf and Kari Hoffman.
Thilo received his PhD from the Georg-August University (Germany) and trained as a post-doc
fellow at the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour in the Netherlands before
joining the faculty at York University in Canada in 2011. The crux of Thilo’s research concerns
understanding the circuit mechanisms of attention and control in non-human primates.
Specifically, his research aims at discovering (1) how these cell-circuit-systems levels interplay
to bring about adaptive behavior, (2) which factors cause a break down of this interplay in
disease, and (3) how interventions can prevent such break-down. In his research, Thilo
employs multiple innovative approaches including multi-electrodes implanted in multiple brain
areas, naturalistic tasks, sophisticated analytical methods and pharmacological
manipulations. He has won the Petro Canada Young Innovator Award in 2014 and a Merit
Award (2012) from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at York University. Just like Kari, his
research is exceptionally well funded by multiple CIHR Operating Grants, NSERC Discovery
Grant, an NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience plus CIHR New
Investigator and Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development
and Innovation.
Kari has a very distinguished training pedigree (PhD. at the University of Arizona in Dr. Bruce
McNaughton’s laboratory, Post-doctoral fellowship at the Max-Plank Institute with Dr. Nikos
Logothetis) that was recognized upon her faculty appointment at York University (Canada)
through an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship and Ontario Early Researcher Award. Kari’s research
interests center around the neural mechanisms underlying perception and memory formation in
human and non-human primates. Her lab uses state-of-the-art technology, including multichannel
recording and stimulation techniques applied during behavioral tasks, along with timeand
frequency-domain analysis techniques. Current scientific goals encompass understanding
the cellular basis of oscillatory brain activity and determine the role such activity may play in
adaptive behaviors such as exploration and memory-guided exploitation of the
environment. Kari has an exceptionally well funded research program supported, among others,
by an NSERC Research Tools and Instruments grant, an NSERC CREATE Training Grant, as
well as awards from the Krembil Foundation and Alzheimer Society of Canada, and is currently
PI of a large multi-investigator grant from Brain Canada.