Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Impressions of the Ohio State campus

I had visited Ohio State before, but this past weekend my brother-in-law was kind enough to offer up a very comprehensive tour of the Columbus campus. With Ann Arbor as my baseline for what a Big Ten university looks like, the contrasts were quite interesting.

Above all, the Ohio State campus stands geographically distinct from the Columbus in a way that the Michigan campus does not from Ann Arbor. This creates a coherence that I found very positive. I was also struck by the large number of enormous state-of-the-art athletic facilities which range from the iconic football stadium to a 21st century student recreational facility that might be orbiting the earth (think 2001 A Space Odyssey) were it not linked very firmly to the ground.
The Medical School/Hospital complex is part of the overall campus complex–it is both heterogeneous and modern. Oh, and I forgot, also elephantine. I wonder if it is making money (profitable university hospitals are a rare commodity these days).
But the student dorms were clearly in stasis. Compared with the gorgeous spanking brand new residence halls at George Mason, these were pretty much unchanged from when they were built at various points in the last century–at least on the outside. That would seem to be an important area for the campus to invest in. And perhaps…that’s in the works. A huge new student union was under construction. With a large new union, new dorms would logically follow.
Jim

From Columbus Ohio

Ohio State beat hapless Youngstown State University by an enormous margin, while Michigan lost to Utah yesterday in college football. They are very happy about that here today. It’s too bad I’m a Michigan fan. But the weather here is spectacular, even as we worry once again about New Orleans in the context of a hurricane.

I’ve enjoyed this holiday Labor Day weekend. Tomorrow we return to Washington and the work of the Institute.

Jim

My take on the neuroethics of the "Decade" project

I write about Decade of the Mind project in today’s Sunday Washington Times….

Selected quote:

As a neuroscientist, I urge Americans to embrace the neuroscience revolution but soberly discuss the ethical and legal implications of what these changes might mean. We can do this by urging Congress and the new administration to endorse the National Decade of the Mind Project and the concomitant investment into a healthier and more prosperous nation

Janelia East

Noah Gray’s blog at Nature Network comments on “the future construction of a brand new neuroscience research institute based at University College London”.

Karel Svoboda used the term “Janelia East” to characterize it.

Interestingly, Noah refers to hiring issues at Janelia “West”. Money quote:

JFRC has been around for longer and has gone through this hiring cycle a few times. They have slowly brought in a mix of established and newish investigators and have put together quite a fabulous team. However, the fact that they are still advertising for positions 2-3 years on (having been through quite a few cycles of interviewing and job offers at this point) suggests that these innovative, passionate scientists they are striving to hire are either reluctant to come, or are simply not out there in droves.

Therefore, once these new European ventures are online, they may run into a similar personnel problem that is plaguing Janelia. Perhaps this will not be the case. The UCL center has quite a lot going for it, being associated with a world-class university, and also being smack-dab in the middle of a major international city. This can only help with recruitment. It will be interesting to see if in a few years, whether the UCL center fills its new buildings with researchers any faster than Janelia has filled its beautiful glimmering glass-walled laboratories. But even if recruitment problems do not arise, this concept got me thinking about how to best match specific research goals with the individual labs that will actually conduct the work.

Jim

Welcome to the the 2008-2009 Academic Year

A week from today, the Institute for Advanced Study parking lot will be jammed with parents unloading their children’s stuff–we’re adjacent to the freshman dorms here at George Mason University–and so the beginning of the academic year is unmistakable for us.

I have just returned to campus from the annual two-day President’s Council/Board of Visitor’s retreat. It’s an entirely useful exercise that informs me of the entire waterfront of activities going on at this very large public university. Beyond informing, it also is wonderful for getting into the right frame-of-mind to begin another academic year as Institute Director.
For the Institute, this marks the beginning of our eighteenth year, and our sixth since fully merging into George Mason. I count approximately 60 scientific staff, 7 administrative support folks (including myself) and two wonderful doctoral programs that fill our halls and break-out places with students. We have finished our first expansion project (we’re now approximately 35,000 square feet) and we’re going to commence the second expansion sometime during this academic year (another 12,000 or so square feet).
Most importantly, we’re doing significant science–advanced studies–at the forefront of the interface between biology, psychology and machines–“mind sciences”. Throughout my travels this past summer, I find myself reminding: I may be a neuroscientist, but I lead an institute for advanced study.
So let’s focus on the trans-disciplinary science that our illustrious founders chose as putatively fruitful–cognition across the intersection of computer sciences, neurobiology and cognitive psychology. 
Good luck for a successful year!
Jim

Scifoo rap up

This was without a doubt one of the very best meetings I have ever attended. From the “flying car” (known as the Transition) to the Tesla roadster, to meeting one Google’s founders, Sergey Brin, to some of the very best neuroscience on the brain-machine interface–I learned an awful lot. 

We had a good session on the Decade of the Mind project—I remain cautiously optimistic.

Now for the awful red-eye back to Washington and…..a regular work day tomorrow. I wish I could just teleport like they do in Second Life.
Jim

Arrival at Scifoo

So here I am at the Wild Palms Hotel lobby in Sunnyvale getting ready for the fun to start at Scifoo camp. I got up at 4:30AM this morning to catch a Jet Blue flight at Logan. And all went well for once except for losing a pair of glasses–I’m on the reserve pair.

Thinking about Science 2.0, I keep returning to the notion of provenance of the data–especially for images and movies. It’s a major issue. As important I think as metadata.

Jim