“Nearly everyone in the room was shouting, but Katrin remained calm, respectful and composed”, recalls Goebel of a tense meeting in Brussels about a decade ago. He was there after his work in a mediation team, engaging with the board of the Human Brain Project (HBP). Launched in 2013 as one of the largest European research projects ever, the HBP was allocated hundreds of millions of euros in EU funding. Its ambitious ten-year goal: to develop a model capable of simulating the entire human brain.
But within the first year, problems arose. Scientists worldwide were critical of the project, publishing a scathing letter in Nature. “It was an unattainable goal”, says Roebroeck. “The human brain contains around one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons, forming trillions of connections to each other. Even today’s supercomputers are incapable of fully simulating that. The project also needed better balance – there was too much emphasis on data and supercomputers, and not enough on neuroscience.” And, adds Goebel, it needed more democracy so that “its direction was no longer dictated by a handful of leaders.”
That’s where Amunts came in. After the Brussels meeting, her colleagues elected her as the project’s new scientific director. “From that moment, the HBP became a huge success”, says Roebroeck. “And whenever things threatened to go wrong again, Katrin managed to turn them around. Scientists are passionate about what they do, and emotions can run high sometimes. It’s a talent to stay calm when the stakes are so high.” Goebel, who worked closely with Amunts as a fellow board member for several years, is equally impressed by her leadership qualities. “Just think about it – the project involved over five hundred researchers from about 150 institutions and ended up getting more than half a billion euros in funding. Everyone wanted money for their own niche topic. Keeping everyone on the same page was an incredibly difficult task, but Katrin managed it with her amazing leadership skills. Without her, there wouldn’t have been an HBP.”
Herculean task
And the project continues to bear fruit, explains Goebel. While the HBP formally ended in September 2023, results are still coming in and being published in leading scientific journals. “Partly thanks to Katrin, the focus was on challenging but achievable goals.” Examples include how seizures spread through the brain in conditions such as epilepsy, says Roebroeck, or mapping how the brain controls hand movements – work that could help advance the development of robotic arms. “And gaining a better understanding of how the brain functions will also contribute to the continuous improvement of artificial intelligence (AI).”
Both professors emphasise that Amunts didn’t just play a key role as a leader in the HBP. Roebroeck describes her scientific contributions as “groundbreaking” and “visionary”. “Katrin takes on challenges that others see as impossible.” Goebel: “She doesn’t think in terms of two- or three-year grants, but in terms of projects spanning up to twenty years. That takes courage, patience and perseverance.” Roebroeck highlights the Jülich-Brain Atlas, a three-dimensional map of the entire human brain that lets you zoom in – Google Maps-style – on even the smallest structures. “It was a Herculean task, involving cutting a brain into thin slices, putting them under a microscope and then combining all thousands of digitized slices in one model. When she began some fifteen years ago, they weren’t even sure the technique would yield the desired result. But it worked, and now we’re building on her results in our own research. If she hadn’t taken that risk, we’d probably still be debating whether to take on such a daunting challenge.”
Source of inspiration
Amunts’s impact in Maastricht extends beyond research to education. “In her work, she skilfully connects the functioning of the brain at the micro level of neurons to the macro level of entire brain regions, for example”, says Roebroeck. “This requires mastery of various techniques and expertise across disciplines – neuroscience, psychology, biology, mathematics, IT”, adds Goebel. “In this way, she was one of the main sources of inspiration for the new bachelor’s programme in Brain Science launched last September, which embraces this transdisciplinary approach.”
The honorary doctorate Amunts will receive on Friday is her first. “That’s not so unusual”, explains Goebel, “as they often come later in a career. But it’s more than deserved.” “In fact”, Roebroeck concludes with a wink, “it’s an honour for us to be the first to award her an honorary doctorate. Many more distinctions will undoubtedly follow.”