Silvia Arber

Silvia Arber Biozentrum and FMI, Basel, Switzerland Silvia Arber is a Professor of Neurobiology at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and aSenior Investigator at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. Her laboratory investigates neuronal circuits controlling motor behavior. Current work aims to uncover the synaptic organization of motor circuits and to probe how identified neuronal subpopulations encode motor function. Circuits in the brainstem are a key focus of her present work, to understand how these generate and regulate the diversification of motor actions. Arber studied biology at the Biozentrum and graduated with a doctorate in the laboratory of Pico Caroni at the FMI in 1995. After a postdocwith Thomas Jessell at Columbia University in New York, she returned to Basel in 2000 to establish her research group at the Biozentrum and FMI. Arber contributes to the organization of important neuroscience conferences. She was program committee chair of the FENS Forum 2014 and is currently main organizer of the Ascona Circuits meetings. She has been recognized with numerous research prizes, including the National Latsis Prize (2003), the Schellenberg Prize and the Friedrich Miescher Award (2008), the Otto Naegeli Prize (2014), and the Premio Remedios Caro Almela (2015).