ANA 2018 Best Thesis Award for Georg Ammer

Recognition for outstanding PhD thesis on fly motion vision

The ability to see the direction in which something is moving is vital for survival. However, the photoreceptor cells in the eye respond only to light: Is a certain point of the image bright or dark? Which kind of object the image point belongs to or whether this object is moving has to be calculated by the brain. How the brain does this, is still largely unknown.

In his thesis, Georg Ammer investigated the motion vision of Drosophila fruit flies. Together with his colleagues from the Borst department, he characterized so far undescribed neuronal cell types and studied the cells’ connections and signaling as well as their role in a behavioral and evolutionary context. For the cumulation of these studies in his PhD thesis, he received the 2018 Best Thesis Award of the Austrian Neuroscience Society.

Follow this link to read his complete thesis.