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Sven Bernecker, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, has received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Professorship to found and lead a Centre for Contemporary Epistemology and Kantian Tradition at the University of Cologne in Germany. The five-year professorship comes with $3.5 million euros. 

Bernecker, a leading epistemologist and a pioneer of the philosophical debate on memory, was nominated by the University of Cologne, where he has accepted an appointment as of July 1, 2016. He is one of six winners to receive Germany’s most prestigious international research award. Bernecker will retain an appointment at UCI where he will teach one quarter per year.

“We are incredibly proud of Sven for receiving international recognition for his pioneering work in the study of epistemology,” said Georges Van Den Abbeele, dean of the School of Humanities. “It speaks incredibly highly of Sven that he is being tasked with founding and leading a center for contemporary epistemology. Given his leadership and scholarly prominence, I have no doubt he will thrive in this collaboration with the University of Cologne, which will also help furthering the strengths of philosophy at UCI.”

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the International Research Fund for Germany, Alexander von Humboldt Professorships are granted to eminent international researchers of all disciplines who are currently working abroad to enable them to conduct long-term research at German universities.

“I am grateful to UCI for granting me leave time and to the Humboldt Foundation for the opportunity to build a research center,” said Sven Bernecker, professor of philosophy. “I hope to be able to complete several research projects, gain additional administrative experience, and start new collaborations with European colleagues."

Bernecker’s research is situated in the fields of contemporary epistemology and classical German philosophy. He is particularly well-known for his work in the philosophy of memory which draws on relevant work in cognitive science and psychology. He has written two books on the subject—Memory: A Philosophical Study (Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Metaphysics of Memory (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008)—and is co-editing the forthcoming The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory.

For more information on all 2016 Alexander von Humboldt Professorship recipients, click here.

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