Headshot of Jakob Voigts.

Jakob Voigts

Group leader
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Jakob Voigts is a group leader in the Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience research area at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus. His lab studies how the brain rapidly builds models of the world and updates hypotheses during naturalistic behavior. He is also co-founder of Open Ephys, an open-source initiative aimed at improving neuroscience research tools.

Voigts studied mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, where he began neuroscience research on naturalistic tactile behavior in Bert Sakmann’s lab with Tansu Celikel. He earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying cortical computations with Christopher Moore and Emery Brown, and completed postdoctoral work with Mark Harnett at MIT before joining Janelia.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Collage with a portrait of Suzanne Wood.

The ‘secretly awesome’ side of a teaching career

The freedom to do “wacky” research projects that interest you is a major perk of the teaching stream, says Suzanne Wood, a teaching professor at the University of Toronto.

By Katie Moisse
20 May 2026 | 7 min read
Los manifestantes marchan por la calle portando una pancarta que dice "Defendamos la ciencia".

Manifestantes argentinos denuncian el recorte al financiamiento científico

Manifestantes alrededor del país exigieron al gobierno que aumente los salarios de las universidades públicas y el financiamiento para la investigación científica.

Outside influences on CHD8 variant phenotypes, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 18 May.

By Jill Adams
19 May 2026 | 2 min read