Ruxandra Sireteanu

Ruxandra Sireteanu (19 September 1945 – 8 September 2008), also known after her marriage as Ruxandra Sireteanu-Constantinescu, was a Romanian biophysicist and neuroscientist who undertook pioneering research into the human visual system. Born in Romania, she initially studied at the University of Bucharest. She then undertook research in Pisa in Italy and Lausanne in Switzerland before moving to Germany, first joining the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich to work with Wolf Singer, and then the University of Ulm. In 1978, she moved to Frankfurt, initially to join the local Max Planck Institute for Brain Research before inaugurating the chair in Biological Psychology at Goethe University, which she held from 1999. She also held visiting positions at universities in the United States, including the University of California, Berkeley. Her research centred on the way that the visual system developed in people from their birth into adulthood, for which she studied both healthy individuals and, particularly, those with disorders like amblyopia.