3.07.2024

Kurt Koffka Award Ceremony 2024

Kurt Koffka Medal for Prof. Mary Hayhoe

Foto: Claudia Schöne

In memory of Kurt Koffka, the Department of Psychology and Sports Science awards the Kurt Koffka Medal every year to outstanding international researchers for excellent achievements in the field of perceptual or developmental psychology. 

This year, the award was presented to Prof Mary Hayhoe (University of Texas, Austin, USA).

Prof Hayhoe gave a keynote speech entitled "Visual Perception in the Natural World" as part of the ceremony

Professor Hayhoe has made groundbreaking contributions to the role of eye movements in visual perception. Her studies of eye movements in completely natural tasks and environments have led to a paradigm shift in the study of action and perception. It is our intentions and actions that determine where we direct our gaze! 

Mary Hayhoe studied psychology and maths in Queensland (Australia) and obtained her doctorate at the University of California in San Diego. She was Assistant Professor at Columbia University and at the University of Rochester, where she was also Director of the Cognitive Science Programme and the Center for Vision Science. She has been a professor at the University of Texas at Austin since 2006, where she currently heads the Centre for Perceptual Systems. Mary Hayhoe was honoured with the Davida Teller Award from the Vision Sciences Society in 2017 and the Edgar Tillyer Award from Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America) in 2022.