(Fruit) Fly me to the moon: Neurodegeneration, Neurostimulation, & Behavior

This event will be held in English.

What is consciousness? What is attention? Can we pay attention and be conscious while we sleep? If you are interested in the answers to these questions, join us for Conversations on Consciousness, a series of discussions hosted by Columbia University Professor Alfredo Spagna and Columbia Global Centers | Paris. Professor Spagna will speak with internationally recognized scientists from the Paris Brain Institute on the most recent discoveries in neuroscience, detailing how the brain makes us who we are.

The conversation will be followed by a reception.

Speakers

Bassem Hassan

Bassem Hassan is a Team Leader at The Paris Brain Institute (ICM) in Paris, France, and is the institute’s Scientific Director. Dr. Hassan obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at The Ohio State University, in 1996. Between 1996 and 2001 he was an HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and an NIH (National Institutes of Health) Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In 2001, he was recruited to VIB (Flemish Institute of Biotechnology) in Belgium as a Group Leader and Professor.In 2016, he was recruited to the ICM to establish the laboratory of Brain Development and was then appointed as the PBI’s Scientific Director in 2019. In 2003, he received the EMBO Young Investigator award and in 2009 he was elected EMBO member. In 2016, he was named Einstein Visiting Fellow in Berlin, Germany. In March 2016 Dr. Hassan received the Allen Distinguished Investigator award and was the 2019 laureate of the Roger De Spoelberch Prize for his work linking brain development to neurodegeneration. Research in the Hassan lab focuses on the genetic mechanisms regulating early development of the nervous system from cell fate specification to neural circuit formation.

Liane Schmidt

Dr. Liane Schmidt is a cognitive neuroscientist at INSERM, the French Institute for health and medical research. Her work addresses the question of how higher-order prognostic beliefs about the future, the world, and the self shape value-based decision-making and the judgment of experiences. Dr. Schmidt addresses this question by combining behavioral testing with brain imaging and mathematical models in healthy humans and patients with psychiatric, neurological, and metabolic disorders.

Antoni Valero-Cabré

Dr. Valero-Cabré is a tenured Full Research Professor at CNRS (Paris Brain Institute) since 2007. He received his MD and Master and PhD in Neurosciences from the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona UAB. He was a Postdoctoral Associate at Harvard Med School-BIDMC & Boston University School of Medicine (HMS-BIDMC & BUSM, 2000-2004) as well as an Assistant/Associate/Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and lab director (BUSM, 2004-2007, and 2008-2015). His research domains include the electrophysiological underpinnings of neural plasticity in cognitive networks and how these processes can be manipulated through cognitive therapy and/or non-rhythmic invasive neurostimulation to promote recovery after brain damage (Stroke and dementia).

Alfredo Spagna (Host)

Professor Spagna is a faculty member of the Psychology Department at Columbia University and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Neuroscience and Behavior Major. He is an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist, studying the intersection between attention, consciousness, and imagination. He received his Ph.D. from La Sapienza University in Rome in 2014.

The Place

For nearly sixty years, Columbia University students and faculty have come to study, teach, or pursue their research at Reid Hall, an exceptional space in the world of international education and cultural exchange. Our public events draw on the rich resources of the Columbia campus and our local partners, creating a "third space" of intellectual exploration and research that resists easy categorization. Our workshops, lectures, and performances bring together a diverse audience to address pressing issues through creative, rigorous, and open dialogue.

Today, Reid Hall is home to several Columbia University initiatives: Columbia Global Centers | Paris, Columbia Undergraduate Programs, M.A. in History and Literature, Columbia’s architecture program, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. This unique combination of resources is enhanced by our global network whose mission is to expand the University's engagement the world over through educational programs, research collaborations, regional partnerships, and public events.

The views and opinions expressed by speakers and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Columbia Global Centers | Paris or its affiliates.

Host or Publisher Columbia Global Centers l Paris