Prof. dr. Nick Ramsey has won the Joannes Juda Groen Senior prize 2018. Ramsey is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and his research focuses on brain-computer interfaces. He combines basic brain research with, among other things, machine learning, technical sciences and medicine. A result has been that paralyzed patients (now two in the Netherlands) can control devices using brain activity and that virtual activity can be converted into actual movements.

Ramsey is very delighted with the prize. “It is an important recognition for the discipline-transcending and translational nature of our research, and endorses the importance of our work for the small but very function-limited target group, patients with the locked-in syndrome (LIS). The recognition is an important boost for the team and puts our research in the spotlight. It also gives us the opportunity to expand our research program and to reach more potential candidates. Ultimately, we also want to offer solutions to less severely paralyzed people to promote independence and participation in society.”

The prize will be awarded on the 20th of September during a public symposium entitled ‘Health is more than Medicine’. It is an initiative of SIGO: a Foundation for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Science Research.