Two internationally renowned cognition scientists have chosen the University of Bremen for their research: Dedre Gentner and Kenneth D. Forbus from the Northwestern University, Chicago. Their research sojourn will be supported by a €60,000 Humoldt Research Prize. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards the prize each year to top-notch researchers from abroad to enable them to finance a research sojourn at a university of their choice.
Dedre Gentner and Kenneth D. Forbus chose the Collaborative Research Center CRC/TR 8 Spatial Cognition, wich is hosted by the Universities of Freiburg and Bremen. Proof once again that Bremen’s reputation for excellent research is appreciated and recognized in the international arena.
Gentner and Forbus belong to the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Center is a partner of the CRC/TR 8. The two scientists are to come to Bremen for six months next year. More than 70 computer scientists, psychologists and linguists from Bremen and Freiburg work in the CRC, carrying out joint research on how humans and robots gather and process knowledge about their spatial environment, how they orientate and find their way around, and how they might be able to exchange information about their surroundings.
About the award winners:
Dedre Gentner is a Professor of Psychology and Education as well as Director of the Cognitive Science Program at Northwestern University. She is famous for her contributions in three different fields of research: 1) How humans solve problems with the aid of analogies 2) How children learn to connect terminologies with their meaning and 3) The role language plays in thinking. Kenneth Forbus is a Professor of Computer Science and Education as well as President of the international Cognitive Science Society. He is widely held to be a pioneer in the field of research on artificial intelligence, especially in the area of qualitative reasoning – i.e. utilizing the findings of research on the human thought process to program computers.
For more information contact:
Universität Bremen
SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition
Julia Gantenberg
e-mail: gantenbergprotect me ?!informatik.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218 64235,
Fax: +49 (0)421 218 64239
www.sfbtr8.spatial-cognition.de
http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/humboldt-preis.html
