Henrik Ehrsson receives The Hans Wigzell Research Foundation's first science prize
The Hans Wigzell Research Foundation (Hans Wigzells forskningsstiftelse) today awarded its first annual scientific prize to the brain researcher Henrik Ehrsson at Karolinska Institutet (KI). Professor Ehrsson gets the prize of 500,000 SEK for his pioneering research on how our minds can be influenced to experience the body.
Professor Ehrsson’s research concerns the corporeal self-awareness and how our minds can be influenced to experience the body. The medical use could for instance comprise how a prosthesis can feel real. The research, carried out at KI in Stockholm, has attracted considerable interest in the medical world.
Part of the foundation's citation reads:
"Professor Henrik Ehrsson at Karolinska Institutet receives the 2016 prize for his groundbreaking research into how we experience that our body is our own. He performs his research using the most advanced brain imaging techniques available to measure what happens in confrontation with various corporeal perceptual illusions, created using e.g. virtual reality technology."
"We can create the illusion that a computer-simulated body is experienced as one's own body," explains Professor Ehrsson.
Rhenman & Partners Asset Management is the initiator and founder of the research foundation.
For more information, please contact:
Hans Wigzells Forskningsstiftelse
E-mail: hw@forskningsstiftelse.se
About Henrik Ehrsson
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
Research Group Leader at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. Henrik Ehrsson investigates the cortical mechanisms underlying the perception of one’s own body in the room. The results have received international attention and has also been portrayed in television documentaries by the BBC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.
About Hans Wigzell
Professor of Immunology, Karolinska Institutet
Former President of Karolinska Institutet, Chairman of KI’s Nobel Committee, Director General of the Infectious Diseases Institute and National Bacteriological Laboratory. Hans is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences IVA.
About the Hans Wigzell Research Foundation
The foundation promotes its support of scientific research and education in the medical field, in particular through scholarships and other grants. It will also organize and/or support seminars and conferences.
About Rhenman & Partners
Rhenman & Partners Asset Management, founded in 2008, is a Stockholm-based investment manager focusing on two niche funds: Rhenman Healthcare Equity L/S, founded in June 2009, and Rhenman Global Opportunities L/S, founded in August 2016. Assets under management at year-end 2015 amounted to almost 5 billion SEK. Investment Teams of both Funds are in their investment processes supported by renowned Advisory Boards, including professors and experts with many years of market experience and extensive networks around the world.
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