FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 17, 2008
Sandia to host fourth Decade of the Mind symposium Jan. 14-15
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories will host the fourth Decade of the Mind symposium Jan. 14-15. The symposium is expected to attract some 200 to 300 internationally respected scientists and decision makers.
The following provides additional information about the conference;
WHAT: Decade of the Mind symposium, subtitled “Reverse Engineering the Brain: Sowing the Seeds for Technology Innovation,” will explore recent scientific advances in brain science and application of this science to create new technologies.
WHEN AND WHERE: The symposium will be held on Jan. 14-15 at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, 1300 Tuyuna Trail, Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., north of Albuquerque, and is open to the public. To receive the special room rate of $99/person plus tax, reservations must be made by Dec. 22.
WHY: Scientific breakthroughs in cognition and neurology are at a crossroad and a revolution of mind research is underway. Innovative new technologies are emerging in the areas of reverse engineering of the brain, computational neuroscience, cognitive modeling and massive neuronal simulations. This symposium will look at the future of all these.
WHO: The symposium will feature several high-powered speakers and panels including:
- Rick Stephens, senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration for The Boeing Company. A 28-year Boeing veteran, Stephens oversees all leadership development, training, employee relations, compensation, benefits, Global Corporate Citizenship and diversity initiatives at the Chicago-based, $61.5 billion, 158,000-person commercial airplane and defense company.
- George Johnson, author of “Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe.” He writes about science for The New York Times from Santa Fe, N.M. and is winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award.
- Jim Olds, Ph.D., director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study and the Shelley Krasnow University Professor of Neuroscience at George Mason University. Olds’ research is directed toward understanding and simulating the molecular mechanisms that permit neurons and neuronal assemblies to store and recall memories, both under normal and pathological conditions.
- Jim Giordano, Ph.D., Samueli-Rockefeller Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Neurosciences, director of the Program in Brain-Mind and Healing Research and Scholar in Residence at the Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. He is also Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, Virginia, and American Academy of Pain Medicine-Wilburn National Visiting Professor of Neuroscience and Ethics, at the Messer-Racz Center for Pain Research and Therapeutics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
- Christof Koch, Ph.D., Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology. His laboratory, K-Lab, focuses on experimental and computational research pertaining to the biophysics and neurophysiology of neurons, and the neuronal correlates of selective visual attention, awareness and consciousness in the mammalian brain.
- Bob Shulman, Ph.D., Sterling Professor Emeritus Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Senior Research Scientist Diagnostic Radiology, and Professor Emeritus Chemistry at Yale University. Over the past several decades, he has been a pioneer in the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study biochemical processes. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
- Jim Albus, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University. Previously, Albus was a Senior Fellow in the Intelligent Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
- Jay McClelland, Ph.D., professor of psychology and the founding director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Computation at Stanford University. He is the author, with David E. Rumelhart and the PDP Research Group, of “Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition” (MIT Press, 1986), the book that many credit with launching the connectionist revolution in cognitive psychology and computer science.
- Jeff Krichmar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include neurorobotics, embodied cognition, biologically plausible models of learning and memory, and the effect of neural architecture on neural function. From 1999 to 2007, he was a Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute.
COSPONSORS: Cosponsors include the Krasnow Institute at George Mason University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Santa Fe Institute, the University of New Mexico, MIND Research Network and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
MORE INFORMATION AND REGISRATION: For more information on the symposium see http://dom-4.org.
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Chris Burroughs, coburro@sandia.gov (505) 844-0948
Decade of the Mind symposium contact: Kevin Dixon, krdixon@sandia.gov (505) 284-5615