Profile

Ilona Kotlewska is a neurobiologist and neuropsychologist. She holds a doctoral degree in biological sciences from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). She also completed Inter-faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Her research interests include brain processes, in particular the development of self-awareness and responsiveness to external stimuli. She researches brain activity using electroencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR). Currently, at the Jagiellonian University, she researches the process of attention and is a Principal Investigator in a study concerning neurobiological foundations of ownership.

She completed research fellowships at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Germany, where she studied perception of sound and perceptions of one’s own name. Thanks to a scholarship, she spent a year at the Dartmouth College in the United States, researching mechanisms involved in recognition of familiar faces.

She was a recipient of the Fulbright Junior Research Award (2017–2018), the ETIUDA-4 grant provided by the National Science Centre, and the START scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science.

She is a member of the Spokesmen of Science association.

Dr. Kotlewska is an avid popularizer of science through open lectures that provide scientific answers to questions such as: “Why do people like to complain?” or “Are all people neuro-egoists?”. She also publishes popular science articles on the online platform Crazy Nauka (Crazy Science), and talks about science and research on the Polish radio.

At SWPS University she teaches classes in biological bases of behavior.