prof. dr. Roshan Cools

About Roshan Cools

Roshan Cools is Principal Investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour and Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry at the Radboud University Medical Center. She is an expert in the chemical neuromodulation of human cognition and motivation. Her PhD is from the University of Cambridge (UK), where she held Royal Society research fellowships and did a postdoc at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. At the Donders, she steers an active research group (www.roshancools.com), combining psychopharmacology, fMRI, chemical PET imaging, computational cognitive modelling, neurostimulation and patient work to unravel how behavioral control strategies are adaptively tuned to our constantly changing environment, modulated by the major ascending neuromodulators, including dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline. She holds a Horizon Europe ERC Advanced grant, and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). 

Personal prizes & awards

• 2022: ERC Advanced Grant CHEMCONTROL: Balancing Brain Chemicals for Boosting Meta-Control
• 2021: Lead Scientist Voucher from Human Brain Project. Programma voor toonaangevende wetenschappers in neurowetenschappen met gebruik van EBRAINS-infrastructuur
• 2017: Ammodo Science Award in Social Sciences (KNAW). Mid-career award voor uitzonderlijke wetenschappelijke prestaties en ondersteuning van fundamenteel onderzoek
• 2015: Vici Award, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
• 2012: Young Investigator Award of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society
• 2012: James McDonnell Scholar Award
• 2011: Radboud Science Award for best research at Radboud University
• 2008: Vidi Award, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
• 2006: Royal Society University Research Fellowship, University of Cambridge UK
• 2002: Human Frontiers Longterm Fellowship (declined)
• 2002: Junior Research Fellowship, St John’s College, Cambridge UK
• 2002: Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship, University of Cambridge UK
• 1999: CD Marsden Studentship, Parkinson’s Disease Society of the UK
• 1998: Dutch-British Partnership Award, Cambridge, UK
• 1998: Cambridge European Trust Award, UK

Additional Functions

• 2018: Co-Founder and Member, Executive Committee, International Conference on Control Processes, with David Badre, Adam Aron and Tobias Egner (Amsterdam)
• 2021-2026: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen
• 2025: General Chair, Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM), Dublin
• 2024: Reviewing Editor, eLife
• 2024: Visiting Speaker, Nyenrode Business Universiteit
• 2024: Contractual Partner (Visiting Speaker), Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG
• 2024: Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Ammodo Science Fellowship
• 2024: Member, Project Advisory Council (PAC) for the Behavior Group, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics (AIND)
• 2024: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre (CRNL)
• 2023: Member, Scientific Advisory Board of the KNAW Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN)
• 2022-2025: Chair, Campus-wide Strategic Healthy Brain Initiative, Radboud Universit
• 2022: Advisory Editor, Psychopharmacology
• 2021: Consultant, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
• 2021: Program Chair, Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM), Brown University
• 2021: Member, Scientific Advisor Council, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics (AIND)
• 2020: Member, Advisory Board, Trends in Cognitive Sciences
• 2016: Co-Founder and Member, Executive Committee, International Conference on Control Processes, with David Badre, Adam Aron and Tobias Egner (UC San Diego)
• 2017: ESF College of Expert Reviewers
• 2014-present: Member, Editorial Board, Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences

Expertise

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychopharmacology
• Computational Psychiatry
• Neuroimaging (PET, fMRI)