Gustavus Announces Presenters for 2011 Nobel Conference

The 47th annual Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, scheduled for Oct. 4-5, 2011, is titled “The Brain and Being Human” and will focus on current issues in the field of neuroscience.

Nobel Conference officials have already booked the following presenters for the 2011 conference:

• John Donoghue, Ph.D., Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
• Martha Farah, Ph.D., Centers for Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroscience and Society, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Paul W. Glimcher, Ph.D., Centers for Neuroeconomics and Nueral Science, New York University
• Helen Mayberg, M.D., Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science and Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga.
• Nancey Murphy, Ph.D., Th.D., School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.
• Aniruddh D. Patel, Ph.D., The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, Calif.
• Vilayanur Ramachandran, Ph.D., M.D., Center for Brain and Cognition, Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program, University of California, San Diego
• Larry J. Young, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.

“In recent years novel collaborations between neuroscientists and seemingly disparate fields have forged new ideas and new questions about the working of the brain,” Nobel Conference Director Chuck Niederriter said. “Aspects of daily human life are now incorporated into the scientific arena in a new synthesis to understand the human experience. The braiding of neuroscience with the humanities, arts, social sciences, theology, and engineering has empowered explanations of the motivations and operations of our daily activities.”

The 47th Nobel Conference is a recognition that the time has come to bring together the leading minds and to engage them in conversations about where this frontier of science takes us. Questions about how and why we make decisions; what influences our moral choices, beliefs, and willingness to take risks; what drives our social needs, wants, and desires; why music and art move us; to what extent these attributes exist in other animals; how new bioengineered tools that help us move, sense, and communicate might change how we perceive and interact with the world—all beg our attention. Underlying all of these questions is the ethical dimension: If we can peer into the mind then how do we confront this power? Can we apply what we know about how the brain works to tailor educational needs to the individual? As we start to answer some of these questions, we will begin to build a scientific bridge between the mind and society. This conference will reveal both the intricate complexity and the unifying mechanisms underlying human behavior and lay out a path for future exploration.

For nearly five decades, Gustavus has organized and hosted the two-day Nobel Conference, which draws about 6,000 people to the college campus in St. Peter, Minn., and links a general audience with the world’s foremost scholars and researchers in discussion centered on social and ethical impact of issues in the natural and social sciences.

Tickets for the 2011 Nobel Conference will go on sale in early April. For more information about the 2011 Nobel Conference, contact the Gustavus Office for Marketing and Communication at 507-933-7520.