Mark L. Solms, MD, PhD, 2011

Dr. Solms is best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming, and for his attempts to introduce psychoanalytic methods and theories into contemporary neuroscience. Born in Lüderitz in 1961, he was educated at Pretoria Boys' School and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He moved to London in 1988, where he worked at the Royal London Hospital (Lecturer in Neurosurgery) while he trained as an analyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. He returned to South Africa in 2002, where he now holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town. He was instrumental in establishing the South African Psychoanalytic Association, of which he is the first President. He was awarded Honorary Membership of the New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1998.  Other awards include the George Sarton Medal for contributions to the history and philosophy of science (Rijksuniversiteit Gent, 1996). He has published more than 250 book chapters and articles in both neuroscientific and psychoanalytic journals.  He has published five books, including The Neuropsychology of Dreams (1997), Clinical Studies in Neuropsychoanalysis (2000) and The Brain and the Inner World (2002). His last book was translated into 12 languages. He is the editor of the Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 vols), which will be published next year, and the forthcoming Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 vols).