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“For me, it is just absolutely obvious that there is nothing more interesting than the human brain, that we know of in the universe. It is an incredible object, and something we understand less about than probably anything else.”
Professor Matthew Larkum, Neuroscientist & Director of the Larkum Lab, Berlin

Matthew Larkum graduated with a degree in physiology from the University of Sydney and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Bern, Switzerland. After finishing his postdoctoral research training with the renowned Nobel Laureate Bert Sakmann, at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Matthew became a professor in the Institute for Physiology at the University of Bern. In 2011, he was appointed a professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he now heads the “Larkum Lab” at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin.

Matthew is the son of two scientists, but initially did not set out to study science but rather the violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, before eventually moving over to science. Nonetheless, music-making has remained an integral part of his life, and, together with his wife, the violinist Heather Cottrell, and their two daughters, has settled in Berlin.