KRAL Andrej

Andrej Kral was born in Bratislava and studied general medicine (Comenius University, MD 1993, PhD 1998). During his PhD at the Institute of Pathological Physiology, Comenius University, in collaboration with the Mathematical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science (Prof. V. Majernik), he developed computer models of neuronal networks to explore the process of hearing. In 1995, he moved to Germany to focus to cochlear implants and in vivo neurophysiology at the Institute of Sensory Physiology, J.W.Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (Prof. R. Klinke). There he was appointed associate professor of physiology (“Priv.-Doz.”) in 2002. From 2004 to 2009 he was Professor of Neurophysiology at the University of Hamburg. Since 2009 he has been Chaired Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at the Medical University Hannover and the director of research of the ENT clinics. Andrej Kral heads the Dept. of Experimental Otology. Since 2004 he has been Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience and Cognition at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA and since 2018 Professor of Systems Neuroscience at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He serves as chair of the PhD Program “Auditory Sciences”. In 2018, A. Kral was elected member of the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS) and in 2017 fellow of the German National Academy of Science.

A. Kral’s research interests include neuroscience of deafness, brain development, plasticity and cross-modal reorganization, technology in neuroprosthetics and cochlear implants. His research has been published, among others, in New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Lancet Neurology and Nature Neuroscience, his cumulative IF exceeds 400. Andrej Kral gave more than 150 invited talks at international conferences and research institutions. Together with A.N.Popper and R.R.Fay he edited the volume of the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research on Deafness (vol. 47). The lab received funding from German Research Society (DFG), Common Scientific Conference Germany, National Institutes of Health (USA), National Science Foundation (USA), German Academic Exchange Service, European Union, State of Hamburg and State of Lower Saxony, Oticon Foundation and cochlear implant industry.