Niels Birbaumer is an Austrian psychologist and neurobiologist. He is a leading figure in the development of brain-computer interfaces, a field he has researched for 40 years, with a focus on treating brain disturbances. He has been awarded numerous international honours and prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. Professor Birbaumer leads the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology at the University of T bingen in Germany.