Prestigious award for brain researcher

Dr Lueders' research is focused on unscrambling links between brain anatomy and biological sex, gender identity, sex hormones, intelligence, and meditation. Her recent work has investigated the impact of pregnancy and giving birth on the mother's brain.

She received her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 2005 and also attended Harvard University and UCLA in the United States before joining the University of Auckland in 2018.

Her research aims at better understanding the human brain using high-resolution neuroimaging and high-tech analysis techniques. Additional themes in her work are dynamic processes over the human life span, ranging from neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders to brain ageing and age-related neuropathologies such as dementia.

Dr Lueders has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and is regularly invited to present the outcomes of her research at scientific conferences and academic institutions around the world.

The German-based Alexander von Humboldt Foundation sponsors distinguished international scholars irrespective of their academic discipline or nationality. It was established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as well as other national and international partners. Its aim is to promote international academic cooperation between excellent scientists and scholars from Germany and from abroad.

All Humboldt recipients are nominated to the Foundation selection committee, based on their entire academic record to date. Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany.