people
Ben de Haas, PI
Ben studied psychology at JLU and neuroscience at UCL (PhD with Geraint Rees, postdocs with Sam Schwarzkopf and Marty Sereno). In London, he specialised in brain imaging, while his family grew from n=2 to n=5. Back in Giessen, he studied individual eye movements with Karl Gegenfurtner and was awarded an ERC starting grant in 2019. Ben was lucky enough to have great mentors and strives to pass on the joy of science to those working with him.
Apart from research, Ben likes climbing, reading to his kids, laughing with friends and falling asleep while his wife plays the piano. Check out his CV or Google Scholar for more.
Petra Borovská, PhD student
Petra originally completed interdisciplinary bachelor and master programs in humanities and philosophy of science at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (Czech Republic). She is currently finishing an additional MSc in Early Childhood Research at Leipzig University. Her thesis research for this program was in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and supervised by Dr. Jacob Bellmund. In 2021, she started her PhD at JLU with a focus on individual differences in saccadic eye movements and visual representations in the ventral stream.
In her free time, Petra likes to explore and learn new things. She enjoys making music, spending time in nature, doing sports, or just being with friends.
Maximilian Broda, PhD student
Max graduated from JLU in 2019 with Bachelor and Master degrees in psychology. His Master projects (yes, plural) with Dimitris Voudouris, Katja Fiehler and Jutta Billino focused on somatosensory perception and age-related changes in sensorimotor control. Additionally, he completed the predocotral program (PreProPsych) in visual neuroscience under the supervision of Karl Gegenfurtner. He currently works on the neuroscience and social consequences of individual gaze behavior.
Max likes to spend his free time outdoors. When he isn't hiking, skiing, slacklining or surfskating, he follows the ups and downs (mostly downs) of his favourite soccer team.
Diana Kollenda, PhD student
Diana studied psychology at the University of Bielefeld and interdisciplinary neuroscience at the Goethe University Frankfurt. She was particularly interested in the visual perception of objects and wrote her master's thesis in the Scene Grammar Lab, supervised by Prof. Melissa Võ and Tim Lauer. At JLU, she now explores individual differences in visual perception and their correlates in ventral brain areas.
Escaping the office, Diana enjoys hiking, yoga, drawing, and spending time with her family and friends.
Marcel Linka, PhD student
Marcel spent his graduate and post-graduate education in the beautiful Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he studied psychology at Tilburg University and completed a research master in behavioral science (psychology) at Radboud University, Nijmegen. In 2020, he started his PhD at JLU, focussing on individual differences in visual attention in normal and special populations (i.e. patients with autism, schizophrenia and so-called super-recognizers).
In his spare time Marcel likes making music, traveling, spending time with his family and friends and doing sports.
Lovis Rosenbaum, RA
Lovis studies Data Science at JLU and currently helps the INDIVISUAL team with data collection and stimulus production.
Lovis also is a studnet representative. In his free time, he is member of a rowing club and likes to play volleyball and ride his bike.
Jule Vorndamm RA
Jule studies psychology at JLU and is currently part of the INDIVISUAL team, where she helps with data collection and stimulus production.
Besides Uni, Jule likes to ride her racing bike, enjoys a good game night, and loves to travel with friends and family.
Diana Weissleder, RA
Diana studies psychology at JLU. As student research assistant she helps with data collection and stimulus production. During a research internship with Bahador Bahrami at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin she learned to program virtual environments with Unity and is on her way to become an all-around research ninja. She currently focuses on her Bachelor project with Indivisual, which tests the social relevance of individual differences in gaze behavior.
Diana also runs academic policy campaigns as a student representative. She likes to spend her free time outdoors, most likely in the mountains, skiing or climbing. But she also enjoys diving and snorkeling with her daughter.