Ulla Mitzdorf (15 March 1944 – 19 July 2013) was a German scientist. She contributed to diverse areas including

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

Life and Scientific Work

Mitzdorf gained her doctorate in 1974 at the

Technical University Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

theoretical chemistry Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry which develops theoretical generalizations that are part of the theoretical arsenal of modern chemistry: for example, the concepts of chemical bonding, chemical reaction, valence, the surface o ...

. Subsequently she worked as scholar at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. In 1983 she habilitated in physiology, and in 1984 in medical psychology and

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. From 1988 to 2009 she was Fiebiger Professor for medical psychology at the Ludwig Maximilan University. Simultaneously, she was from 2000 to 2006 women's affairs officer and spokeswoman of the state conference of women and gender equality officers in Bavarian universities. Ulla Mitzdorf significantly contributed to the understanding of

local field potentials Local field potentials (LFP) are transient electrical signals generated in nervous and other tissues by the summed and synchronous electrical activity of the individual cells (e.g. neurons) in that tissue. LFP are "extracellular" signals, meaning ...

(LFPs) in the

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all par ...

. By implementing the technique of current source density (CSD) she provided additional evidence for the theory that cortical LFPs result from the synaptic activity in the brain. Mitzdorf died after a short illness on 19 July 2013, aged 69.

References

Sources

* ''

Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender ''Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender'' (English: "Kürschner's Encyclopedia of German Scholars"), formerly subtitled ''Lexikon der lebenden deutschsprachigen Wissenschaftler'' ("Encyclopedia of Living German-Speaking Scholars"), is a German l ...

External links

Author's profile at Open Library

References at AuthorMapper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitzdorf, Ulla 1944 births 2013 deaths People from Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district) German psychiatrists German neurologists Women neurologists Women cyberneticists Technical University of Munich alumni 20th-century women scientists German women psychiatrists Cyberneticists