Seung-Goo Kim

Dr. Seung-Goo Kim is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (since 2021), working under Prof. Daniela Sammler. His career spans postdoctoral roles at Duke University, University of Cambridge, and MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, with a PhD in Psychology from University of Leipzig (2017, summa cum laude). He holds graduate degrees in Cognitive Science and dual BA in Economics/Psychology, with early training in Musical Composition.

• PhD: University of Leipzig & MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
• Postdoc: Duke University (USA), University of Cambridge (UK)
• Current affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt/Main

His research focuses on the neural encoding of music and speech, particularly: shared mechanisms of musical emotion and prosody; intersubject variability in musical reward sensitivity; temporal structure processing; pitch perception correlates; and applications in clinical neuroscience. Key methodologies include MEG, fMRI, and computational modeling of auditory systems.

Major scientific awards include:

• Johanna Quandt Young Academy Fellowship (2023)
• Postdoc Research Grant Award (Duke University, 2021)
• Summa cum laude PhD (2017)
• Conference Scholarship (Mariani Foundation, Italy, 2014)
• Best Poster Presentation Award (Korean Society of Human Brain Mapping, 2010)

His work includes collaborations with leading labs in neuroaesthetics, music cognition, and clinical neuroscience, with recent publications analyzing tonal hierarchy, dissonance encoding, and myeloarchitecture of impulsivity. Current projects emphasize computational models of auditory processing and empirical aesthetics.