orn in 1956 in Kansas City, Missouri, Christof Koch grew up in Amsterdam/Holland, Bonn/Germany, Ottawa/Canada, and Rabat/Morocco, where he graduated from the Lycèe Descartes with a French Baccalaurèat in 1974. He studied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Tübingen in Germany and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1982. After four years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Koch joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology in 1986, where he is now the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology. He lives with his family in Pasadena.

The author of three hundred scientific papers and journal articles, and several books, Dr. Koch studies the biophysics of computation, and the neuronal basis of visual perception, attention, and consciousness. Together with his long-time collaborator, Francis Crick, he has pioneered the scientific study of consciousness.

Outside of science and writing, Dr. Koch's interests are eclectic. He proudly wears an Apple tattoo indicating his love for the Apple computer which he feels --- together with the Boeing B-747 Jumbo Jet and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco --- is the most beautiful and elegant artifact of the 20th century. Dr. Koch loves to climb mountains, towers, and big walls. For more, please visit his laboratory website at www.klab.caltech.edu or go directly to his biographical page at www.klab.caltech.edu/~koch.