Guest
Lecturer
Charles F. Stevens
One of the most challenging problems in modern biology is to understand
how the brain computes. Charles F. Stevens has been studying the brain for
more than 40 years, and in this lecture he will describe some of the ways
our brain is like (and unlike) a
computer. The human brain contains about the same number of nerve cells as
we have stars in our galaxy. These nerve cells are richly interconnected
to form
circuits that are used for carrying out computations unmatched in their speed
and complexity by the largest and most powerful computers in
the world. Stevens will illustrate how the brain uses quite different
design principles from the ones found in today’s computers
and examine the role of theory in discovering the secrets of
the brain’s computational power.
Dr. Stevens is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor
of
molecular neurobiology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
in San Diego.
He received his B.A. degree in psychology from Harvard University,
his M.D. degree
from Yale University, and his Ph.D. in biophysics from Rockefeller
University.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences and a pioneer in both
electrophysiology
and neuroscience, Stevens has made noteworthy contributions to science’s
understanding of membrane channels, synapse formation, and neurotransmitter
release. Click
here for more information about Dr. Stevens and his
work.
The Swartz Foundation sponsors the Mind/Brain Lecture Series in cooperation
with
Stony Brook University.