Pascal Kaufman received his masters degree in Biology with specialization in Neurosciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. During his master studies he spent several months at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (US) for deepening education in behavioral neurosciences and neuroanatomy. At the Chicago Medical School he worked under Prof. Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi advancing a hybrid neuro-robotic system connecting the living brain of a lamprey to a small mobile robot. Since then Pascal Kaufmann contributed to various neural interfacing projects aiming at unlocking the secrets of neural networks and brain dynamics.

Pascal Kaufmann composed his Diploma Thesis at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer at University of Zurich and Prof. Dr. Rodney Douglas from the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH. His thesis introduced a novel type of growing artificial neural networks underlying spike timing dependent plasticity (virtual neural tissue, VNT). He then became affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory where he later started his PhD thesis on Neural Interfacing and on the phenomenon of intelligent behavior. Besides investigations on groups of neural cells and brain dynamics by means of femto-pulsed laser light he further advanced VNT.

Appreciating the strong correlation of economic and financial resources with the progress of cutting edge research, Pascal Kaufmann holds a minor in economics and business administration. Part-time he started work in one of the leading companies for financial consulting focusing on academic and high-potential clients. In 2006 he was appointed as Senior Sales Manager/Director at Bank Julius Baer, Switzerland’s largest Private Bank. Pascal Kaufmann resigned at Bank Julius Baer effective as of end of 2008.

He is founder of several associations among which the Student Research Opportunities Program (SiROP) directly contributes to research at leading European universities. He is founder of Starmind International Inc. and partner to different companies focusing on know-how, talent management and innovation.

Pascal Kaufmann is involved in the AI-Lab’s strategic setup and is member of the AI Advisory Board. He is responsible for the interface to private industry, sponsors, marketing and media requests. Currently he is involved in several small to large scale projects focusing on building up a world-wide crosscultural community and knowledge source focusing on embodied intelligence and robotics research.

His research interest are in the areas of biological and artificial neural networks, consciousness research, cyborg technology, humanoid robotics, virtual reality, bio ethics,modern philosophy, innovation management, crowdsourcing and know-how trading.