Viola Priesemann is a German physicist, political advisor, and university professor. She currently holds the position of Professor of Theoretical Neural Systems at the University of Göttingen and leads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization.

Priesemann has made significant contributions to the modeling of complex systems, with a focus on the self-organization of neural networks. Her research delves into understanding brain information processing and the construction of biologically inspired computer systems. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she played a crucial role in modeling infection spread and evaluating pandemic containment strategies, advising the German government and serving on the Corona Expert Council.

Educated in physics at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Priesemann earned her Ph.D. in 2013 at the University of Frankfurt, exploring information theory, propagation dynamics in neural networks, and the role of phase transitions in information processing. Following a postdoctoral position with Theo Geisel, she became a Fellow at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Göttingen and established an independent Max Planck research group.