Decade of the Mind

Decade of the Mind: Opening Greetings

James Olds, Director Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University; James Albus, National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Gordon Shepherd, PhD
“The Languages of the Brain and the Mind”

Professor of Neuroscience
Yale University Medical School
Research: The neuron as a complex system and the synaptic organization of neurons into microcircuits in the brain.

Mortimer Mishkin, PhD
“Cognitive Memory and the Hierarchical Organization of the Hippocampal System”

Cognitive Neuroscientist
Laboratory of Neuropsychology
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Research: Studies brain/behavior relations in humans and nonhuman primates. With his colleagues, he helped to identify areas in the cerebral cortex that are essential for perception and memory.

Nancy Kanwisher, PhD
“Functional Specificity in the Cortex:
Selectivity, Experience and Generality

The Ellen Swallow Richard Professor
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research: Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying visual experience.

Avrama Blackwell, PhD and
John Holland, PhD

Moderator: Avrama Blackwell, PhD
Primary investigator of the CENlab
Krasnow Institute
The CENlab Research: Biophysical and biochemical mechanisms of long term memory storage using computational and electrophysiological techniques.

John Holland, PhD
Professor of Psychology and Computer Science and Engineering
University of Michigan
Professor and member of the Board of Trustees
Santa Fe Institute
MacArthur Fellow and a Fellow of the World Economic Forum
Books: “Models of Innovation”, “Emergence: From Chaos to Order”, and “Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity”.

Vernon Smith, PhD, Nobel Prize Winner, Economics 2002
“Neuroeconomics: How Can It Help Us Understand Exchange Systems?”

Professor of Economics and Law
George Mason University
President, IFREE (International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics)

Dharmendra Modha, PhD
“Towards Engineering the Mind by Reverse Engineering the Brain”

Manager, Cognitive Computing Group
IBM’s Almaden Research Center
Chair, IBM’s 2006 Almaden Institute on Cognitive Computing
Co-chaired Cognitive Computing 2007
University of California, Berkeley

Marcus Raichle, MD
“Image of Mind – An Update”

Washington University (St. Louis) School of Medicine
Research: Uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to study human brain organization and function in health and disease.

Giulio Tononi, PhD, MD
“Consciousness and the Brain”

University of Wisconsin
Professor of Psychiatry
Distinguished Chair of Consciousness Science
University of Wisconsin.
Research: Consciousness and its neural substrates and sleep and its functions.
Recipient of the NIH Director Pioneer Award

Rob Shumaker, PhD and George Bekey, PhD

Morning Moderator: Rob Shumaker, PhD
Great Ape Trust
Lead scientist and director of the Orangutan Research Program
Great Ape Trust of Iowa – a world-class scientific research center dedicated to studying great ape intelligence, culture, tool use and language.

George Bekey, PhD – “The Promise and Problems of Robot Intelligence”
Emeritus Professor of Computer Science
Founder of the Robotics Research
University of Southern California
Research: Includes robotic systems multi-robot cooperation and human-robot interaction.