Prof. Dr Sonja Pyott has been appointed Professor of Cellular Communication in Neurosensory Systems at the Department of Neuroscience. Previously, the neuroscientist had been researching and teaching at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands) since 2014, first as Assistant Professor and then as Associate Professor. She has also been teaching at King's College London (UK) since 2024.
After studying at Pennsylvania State University and Stanford University (both USA), Pyott came to Göttingen in 1999 as a Fulbright Scholar at the then Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. This was followed by a doctorate at Stanford University and positions at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (both USA) before she moved to the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Groningen in 2014. Pyott initially worked there as an assistant professor and has been an associate professor since 2021.
Her research focuses on the role of the inner ear in hearing and balance disorders. Using a variety of methods and models., Pyott investigates how sensory input from the inner ear shapes brain function. For example, she examines how the disruption of specific genes contributes to hearing loss. She also studies tinnitus and how ageing affects sensory processing.