Tamás F. Freund

Biography

 Professor Tamás F. Freund is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Neuroscience Department of the Péter Pázmány Catholic University in Budapest. He graduated as a biologist at the Eotvos University in Budapest, worked as a student researcher at the Department of Anatomy, Semmelweis Medical School, Budapest under the supervision of János Szentágothai and Peter Somogyi, and spent a total of 4 years in Oxford. He became head of department (1990), then director (2002) of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. He served as president of FENS (2004-2006), member of the Executive Committee of IBRO (1998-2003), and Chairman of IBRO's Central and Eastern Europe Regional Committee (1999-2003). He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1998), the Academia Europaea (London, 2000), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2001), the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (2001), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014). The major prizes and awards he received include: the KRIEG Cortical Discoverer Award and the Cajal Medal of the Cajal Club (1998, U.S.A.), the Kemali Foundation Award (1998, FENS Forum, Berlin), the Bolyai Prize (2000, Hungary), The Brain Prize (2011, Denmark), and the Prima Primissima Award (2013, Hungary).

Research Interest

 His main scientific interest is the synaptic and molecular organization, functional architecture and physiology of neuronal circuits in the cerebral cortex and related structures, the network basis of behaviour-dependent activity patterns in the brain, the changes in neuronal connectivity/chemical architecture underlying addiction or epileptic and ischemic brain damage. He unraveled the molecular cascade of endocannabinoid signaling and its relationship with anxiety. His work shed light on the mechanism by which impulses of our inner world (motivations, emotions, autonomic state) facilitates brain oscillations and memory storage.