Petra Ritter (neuroscientist) facts for kids

Petra Ritter (born 1974 as Petra Wobst) is a German scientist and doctor. She works in Berlin at a famous hospital called Charité. Dr. Ritter is a neuroscientist, which means she studies the brain. She uses computers to create special brain simulations. These simulations help doctors understand and treat brain conditions in individual people. She combines information from EEG (brain wave tests) and neuroimaging (brain scans) to make these detailed models.

Early Life and Education

Petra Ritter was born in 1974. She went to Humboldt University Berlin to study medicine. During her studies, she also spent time at several well-known universities in the United States. These included UCLA, UCSD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and Harvard Medical School. She also trained at Charité in Berlin.

Becoming a Doctor

In 2002, Petra Ritter received her license to practice medicine. This meant she could officially work as a doctor. Two years later, in 2004, she finished her special research project, called a doctoral thesis, at Charité. She worked on this project with Professor Arno Villringer.

Career and Research

From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Ritter led a research lab. This lab was at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. Her work there focused on understanding how the brain works.

The Virtual Brain Project

Petra Ritter is one of the people who started a very important project called The Virtual Brain. This is an open-source platform. "Open-source" means that the computer code is free for anyone to use and improve. The Virtual Brain helps scientists create detailed computer models of human brains. These models can show how different parts of the brain work together. They can also help predict how brain conditions might affect a person.

Professor of Brain Simulation

Since October 2017, Dr. Ritter has been a full professor at Charité and the Berlin Institute of Health. Her special title is "BIH Johanna-Quandt Full Professorship of Brain Simulation." This means she teaches and does research on how to use computer models to understand the brain. She focuses on helping people with neurological conditions.