PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Benedikt Wirth

Also known as Benedikt Emanuel Wirth

Benedikt Wirth is a researcher whose work uses EEG and eye tracking to study attention and emotion. He earned a psychology master's at Bamberg in 2014 and a PhD at Saarland University in 2018. At Saarland University's Cognition & Action Lab, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher before joining DFKI in 2023; in 2024, he completed a data science master's at Albstadt-Sigmaringen University. His 2018 PLOS ONE paper studied teeth exposure and attentional bias toward angry faces; in 2025, he coauthored a visual-search paper that reported 83.6% cross-user accuracy and an EEG emotion-recognition review that introduced EEGain, an open-source framework. At SCCAI 2025, he served as a track chair for the Doctoral Symposium while affiliated with DFKI.

Now at
DFKI
Works
66
Citations
430
h-index
12

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2014–2018

    Psychology degrees

    He earns a master's degree in psychology at the University of Bamberg in 2014 and a PhD in psychology at Saarland University in 2018.

  2. 2018

    Attentional bias and angry faces

    In 2018, he coauthors the PLOS ONE paper “Furious snarling: Teeth-exposure and anxiety-related attentional bias towards angry faces” with Wentura.

  3. 2023

    Joining DFKI

    At Saarland University's Cognition & Action Lab, he works as a post-doctoral researcher before joining DFKI in 2023.

  4. 2024

    A data science master's

    He completes a master's degree in data science at Albstadt-Sigmaringen University in 2024.

  5. 2025

    EEG and gaze in visual search

    In 2025, he coauthors a visual-search paper on EEG and eye tracking that reports 83.6% accuracy in cross-user evaluation.

  6. 2025

    EEGain for EEG emotion research

    In 2025, he coauthors a review titled “Evaluation in EEG Emotion Recognition: State-of-the-Art Review and Unified Framework,” which introduces EEGain, an open-source framework for comparing state-of-the-art results.

  7. 2025

    SCCAI Doctoral Symposium track chair

    At SCCAI 2025, he serves as a track chair for the Doctoral Symposium while affiliated with DFKI.

Career

  1. 2023–2026DFKI
  2. 2015–2026Saarland UniversityPost-doctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2024Albstadt-Sigmaringen UniversityMaster's degree in data science
  2. 2018Saarland UniversityPhD in psychology
  3. 2014University of BambergMaster's degree in psychology

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. Nonprofit roles are 2.3 times as common in AI safetyIncludes DFKI. We estimate where people focused on safety, alignment and evaluation work. Nonprofit roles appear for 25.1% of safety people with known affiliations, compared with 11.0% in other areas.
  2. The top 10 organizations employed 22% of people shaping AI in 2025: 51% of company researchers and 21% of university researchersIncludes DFKI. We estimate the share of people shaping AI who worked at the top 10 organizations each year from 1955 to 2025, comparing concentration across companies, universities, and institutes and labs.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes DFKI. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes DFKI. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Team – Social, Cognitive and Affective AI scaai.dfki.de. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Furious snarling: Teeth-exposure and anxiety-related attentional bias towards angry faces journals.plos.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Distinguishing Target and Non-Target Fixations with EEG and Eye Tracking in Realistic Visual Scenes arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Distinguishing Target and Non-Target Fixations with EEG and Eye Tracking in Realistic Visual Scenes arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Evaluation in EEG Emotion Recognition: State-of-the-Art Review and Unified Framework arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Evaluation in EEG Emotion Recognition: State-of-the-Art Review and Unified Framework arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Calls – SCCAI 2025 sccai2025.gtu.ge. Checked 20 October 2026.