poeppel received his "abitur" from the maximiliansgymnasium in munich, obtained his bachelor's degree (1990) and doctorate (1995) from massachusetts institute of technology mit. he received training in functional brain imaging as a postdoctoral fellow at the school of medicine of the university of california, san francisco. before going to nyu in 2009, poeppel directed the cognitive neuroscience of language laboratory at the university of maryland college park, where he was a professor of linguistics and biology.