BRAIN EXPERT TO VISIT AUSTRALIA

Australians will have the rare opportunity to learn about the complexities of the human brain and what the future has in store for it, following today’s announcement that one of the world’s leading brain experts will visit Melbourne near year.

Professor Terrence Sejnowski, best known for his work in understanding the principles that link the brain mechanisms to behaviour, will deliver the Graeme Clark Oration on 9 March, 2011 in his only Australian appearance.

“Professor Sejnowski has an international reputation as a pioneer in computational neuroscience, and we are honoured to welcome him to Melbourne to inspire the general public with his deep understanding of brain function,” said Professor Iven Mareels, member of the ICT for Life Sciences Forum Management Committee and Dean of the Melbourne School of Engineering, University of Melbourne.

“His research has contributed to our understanding of such issues as the sleeping brain, memory, the importance of emotions, and debilitating disorders including autismn, schizophrenia, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.”

The free public lecture, The Computational Brain, will explore:

• the workings of the brain;
• whether we are any closer to building artificial brains;
• how our understanding of the brain is transforming ideas about learning and education and the role of social robots; and
• brain behaviour in disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

Terrence Sejnowski currently holds the Francis Crick Chair at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and is also a Professor of Biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he is co-director of both the Institute for Neural Computation and the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center.

Professor Sejnowski is the President of the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) Foundation and is the founding editor-in-chief of Neural Computation published by the MIT Press. An investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Electrical and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He has received many honors, including the Wright Prize for interdisciplinary research from Harvey Mudd College, the Neural Network Pioneer Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Hebb Prize from the International Neural Network Society. Professor Sejnowski was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2008 and to the National Academy of Scienes in 2010. Over the years he has published in excess 300 scientific papers and 12 books, including The Computational Brain which he co-wrote with Patricia Churchland.

The Graeme Clark Oration delivered by Professor Terrence Sejnowski, will be held at 6.15pm on Wednesday, 9 March, 2011 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Click here to be notified when this free public event is open for registration. Note – registration will be essential as places are limited.

About ICT for Life Sciences Forum: The ICT for Life Sciences Forum is a network connecting researchers in Melbourne interested in the convergence between biology, computing and engineering. The Forum’s annual showcase event – the Graeme Clark Oration – is held in honour of the achievements of Professor Graeme Clark, AO, who developed the first multi-channel cochlear implant in Melbourne in the mid 1970s.