Simone Kuehn

Simone Kuehn is Director of the Research Center for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She is also a Heisenberg Professor at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf since 2016, and leads the Psychiatric Environmental Neuroscience (PEN) working group, a cooperation between the MPIB and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin since 2025.

Her academic journey includes:

• Dipl. psych., Universität Potsdam (2006)
• Dr. rer. nat., Universität Leipzig (2009)
• Habilitation in Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2012)

Kuehn's research focuses on environmental psychology and neuroscience, particularly examining how physical environments influence brain function and mental health. Her work bridges neuroscience, psychology, and urban planning to understand how natural and built environments shape human cognition, emotion, and well-being. She has pioneered research on how exposure to natural environments affects stress reduction, cognitive restoration, and brain structure.

Her recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on applying virtual reality to study environmental effects, examining how nature exposure influences mental health conditions including psychosis and depression. The research trends show an increasing integration of digital technologies with environmental neuroscience to develop novel therapeutic approaches.

Kuehn has received significant recognition including:

• Membership in the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• Admittance to Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2005)
• Heisenberg Professorship (since 2016)
• Membership in the Psychology Review Board of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

She actively supervises numerous students across various institutions and collaborates extensively with international research teams. Her work has significant implications for urban planning, mental health interventions, and understanding the neural basis of environmental influences on human cognition and emotion. Kuehn also leads the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2019-2024).