Ernst Niebur is a Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, affiliated with the Mind/Brain Institute and the Department of Neuroscience within the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He is actively involved in multiple interdisciplinary graduate training programs, including Neuroengineering, Neuroscience, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Visual Neuroscience, and the Institute for Computational Medicine. His research lies at the intersection of computational and systems neuroscience, focusing on the development of quantitative models of brain function grounded in neurophysiology, anatomy, and behavior. Key research interests include selective attention, perceptual grouping, neural synchrony, decision-making, and neuromorphic implementations of cognitive functions. He has pioneered models of proto-object-based visual saliency and border ownership in visual cortex, often in collaboration with experimental neurophysiologists. The analysis of his recent publications (2017–2024) reveals a strong focus on computational models of attention, saliency, and decision-making, with increasing integration of neuromorphic and robotic applications. His work spans cognitive neuroscience, vision science, and neuroengineering, frequently employing biologically realistic neural network models and analyzing spike train dynamics. There is a consistent trend toward modeling higher-order cognitive functions using system-level approaches that incorporate temporal coding and network dynamics. Ernst Niebur has not been mentioned as having received formal scientific awards in the provided text, but his extensive publication record in high-impact journals such as PLoS Computational Biology, Journal of Neuroscience, Vision Research, and IEEE Transactions demonstrates significant scholarly impact. He advises graduate students and has mentored numerous former lab members, contributing to training in neuroscience and neuroengineering. While no specific grants are listed, his involvement in multiple NIH-funded training initiatives suggests active participation in funded research. His lab collaborates across disciplines, particularly with engineers and neurophysiologists, and explores both biological and artificial implementations of neural computation. His lab focuses on constructing and testing computational models of neural systems, particularly those involved in attention and perception. The lab integrates theoretical modeling with empirical data, maintaining close ties with experimental groups. Research themes include dynamic visual saliency, neuromorphic hardware implementations, and neural mechanisms of decision-making.






