Brain Awareness Week 2016
We are back for our third year at Brain Awareness Week! Join us for five stories about brains, how they work and how they go wrong. Hosted by Erin Barker and Ben Lillie. Please note this is a mixed seated/standing event, arrive early for the best seats. Doors at 7:30pm, show at 8. 21+.
Stories by:
Amanda Buch is a budding neuroscientist and visual artist who draws inspiration from the intersection of brain biology and creativity in art. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Biophysics and will be pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience. As a scientist, Amanda aims to better characterize and treat the dysfunctional brain circuitry involved in Parkinson’s disease. She has approached this goal over the past five years by studying it from the perspectives of stem cell therapy, molecular signaling, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience. Her most developed work has involved using sound as a therapy for the brain, a technology called focused ultrasound. She has been coauthored in top science journals including Nature. She enjoys applying her understanding of the brain and her artistic abilities to science communication and illustration.
Anne K. Churchland received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in the Physiology and Biophysics Department. Her postdoctoral work focused on mechanisms of decision making in nonhuman primates and included both experimental and theoretical work. In 2010, she became an assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In starting her own laboratory, Professor Churchland began studying decision making using rodent models to take advantage of emerging tools for circuit dissection which are readily available in rodents. Since then, her laboratory has been a major player in bringing behavioral paradigms to rodents that have been successful in elucidating neural mechanisms in primates. These include perceptual decision making and multisensory integration.
Since joining Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Professor Churchland has been the recipient of awards from the McKnight Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Klingenstein-Simons Foundation, the John Merck Fund and the Chapman Foundations. In addition to her scientific work, Professor Churchland runs science outreach activities at public schools and co-directs the Undergraduate Research Program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She also maintains a blog about neuroscience research that is directed at a mainstream audience.
Chris Duffy is a NYC-based comedian who performs across the country. His shows have been featured in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and in The Onion A.V. Club. Chris is the creator and host ofYou're the Expert, a live show, podcast, and public radio program on Boston's WBUR where three comedians try to guess what a scientist studies all day.
Emily Mullin is a freelance science writer interested in telling stories that explore the intersection of health and humanity. She is a regular contributor at Forbes, and her reporting frequently appears in The Washington Post. She has also written for publications like The Atlantic, The Baltimore Sun, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. She holds an MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University and is based in the Washington, D.C. area, where she performs with and writes short plays for The Coil Project, a nonprofit theater company.
Nitin Ron is a neonatologist (baby doctor) and loves high altitude trekking and mountaineering. He is an associate professor of pediatrics at New York Methodist Hospital, and loves to use innovative methods to teach medical students. He is leading a research project in the Himalayas, including the Mt. Everest region, involving ultrasound of the eye and the body to predict mountain sickness. He also volunteers as an art guide at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York City, and this is a reminder that medicine is so much of an art as well as a science!