On the 1st of December 2016, The Faculty of Psychology and thus the Ruhr-University Bochum awarded Prof. Dr. Giorgio Vallortigara from Trento University with the title of a Doctor rerum naturalium honoris causa (Dr. rer. nat. h. c.). This is a high and rare award, only given to very distinguished scholars. Within the 51 years of existence of our faculty, this award was before only given twice. Giorgio Vallortigara was awarded for his landmark contributions in comparative cognitive behavioral sciences. Among other insights, he could demonstrate that cognitive abilities that we thought were unique to humans are widespread within animals. He also showed that brain asymmetries are not a privilege of the human species, and that young animals are born with a rich knowledge about the world they are going to live in. Giorgio Vallortigara has published close to three hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications with some of them having appeared in top journals like Nature, Science, PNAS, Plos Biology, or Current Biology. But Giorgio Vallortigara is also a very successful organizer of academic systems. He was instrumental in the creation and foundation of the Center for Mind and Brain Sciences at the University of Trento in Northern Italy. This center is a unique place with a vast technical infrastructure for cognitive neuroscience and behavioral analyses. From the very beginning on, Giorgio Vallortigara was a central figure of this center and became its director from 2002 to 2015.

Congratulations Giorgio!!!