Friedemann Zenke

Friedemann Zenke is an Assistant Professor at the University of Basel and a Junior Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), Basel, Switzerland. His research lies at the intersection of computational neuroscience, machine learning, and neuromorphic engineering, focusing on modeling memory formation and information processing in neural networks.

• Assistant Professor, University of Basel (2022–present)
• Junior Group Leader, FMI (2019–present)
• SNSF Eccellenza Fellow (2022–2027)

Education:

• PhD, School of Computer and Communication Sciences, EPF Lausanne, Switzerland (2014)
• Diplom in Physics, University of Bonn and Australian National University (2009)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University (2015–2017)
• Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford (2017–2019)

His research interests center on understanding how plasticity mechanisms—such as Hebbian, homeostatic, and predictive plasticity—enable learning and memory in biologically inspired neural networks. He develops computational models using spiking and rate-based networks, leveraging high-performance computing and machine learning tools. His work integrates theoretical analysis from dynamical systems and statistical physics with practical dimensionality reduction techniques to compare model outputs with experimental data. A major focus is on surrogate gradient methods for training non-differentiable spiking networks, enabling their application in neuromorphic hardware.

The recent publications highlight a strong trend toward bridging theoretical neuroscience with practical AI and hardware applications. Key themes include credit assignment in spiking networks, energy-efficient neuromorphic learning, biologically plausible plasticity rules, and benchmarking frameworks for emerging neural models. His work increasingly emphasizes the co-design of algorithms and hardware for next-generation brain-inspired computing systems.

Scientific Awards:

• SNSF Eccellenza Fellowship (2022–2027)
• Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016–2019)
• Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015–2016)
• Teaching Award, EPFL (2012)
• Marie Curie PhD Fellowship (2010–2014)
• DAAD Fellowship (2006)

Friedemann Zenke leads an active research group at FMI, advising multiple PhD students and mentoring postdoctoral fellows. His research is supported by competitive grants, including the SNSF Eccellenza grant. He is a key member of the Computational Neuroscience Initiative Basel, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between theoretical and experimental neuroscience. His lab develops large-scale neural network simulations and contributes to open tools for evaluating spiking neural networks, such as the Heidelberg Spiking Data Sets. Future work aims to further unify principles of biological learning with scalable, efficient AI systems.