David Poeppel is a Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU.
Trained at MIT (SB, PhD) in cognitive science, linguistics, and neuroscience, David did his post-doctoral training at the University of California San Francisco where he focused on functional brain imaging. From 1998 until 2008, he was a professor at the University of Maryland College Park, where he ran the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language laboratory. From 2014-2025, he was first the Director of a Max Planck Institute and then the CEO of the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience, both in Frankfurt Germany. He has been a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and The American Academy Berlin, and a guest professor at many institutions. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the German Academy of Science Leopoldina.
David’s research focuses on the brain basis of language, speech, and hearing, and his empirical and theoretical work has contributed to a deeper understanding of the links between neurobiology and cognition. His most significant contribution is that he has mentored a large number of PhD students and postdocs who have become impactful contributors to the field.
