And so it begins…

Obama’s second term actually began yesterday with his first second swearing in, but today is inauguration day here in Washington. We’ll see about how his second term plays out, but what I’m really excited about is the beginning of the Spring semester here at Mason, which begins tomorrow.

There are about 50 undergraduate neuroscience majors registered for my cellular neuroscience class–we’ll meet in person for the first time tomorrow, although the class blog and Facebook page are already active.

And in the meantime, the exciting research program of the Krasnow Institute goes forward. The Institute is now in its twenty-third year! Sometimes I’m shocked to think of how far its progressed over these two plus decades. We are now in the process of beginning to prepare grants for a second MRI, and planning for the process which will bring all of our research efforts into the facility–under one roof.

Foundational ideas: Dan Dennett on the Mind…

From John Brockman’s The Edge, it’s here. Dan was one of the initial intellectual founders of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies. Here is a long-piece interview with him on the very subject that is central to our research program: the human mind.

One idea that I agree with him about: the notion that our early notions of neurons as simple switching devices was vastly over-simplified. Dennett here calls them “little agents with an agenda”.

Read it all.

Odds and ends…

First, congrats to one our own, Rebekah Evans on her excellent editorial in this month’s Biological Bulletin, here.

Second, congrats to Dan Cox for his mentorship of young aspiring scientists–his high school intern Suhas Gondi from local Thomas Jefferson HS has been named both Intel and Siemens semifinalist for work conducted in his labs at Krasnow. The news was just announced yesterday and Suhas is one of only 9 from Virginia and 300 nationwide.

Third, congrats to colleague Monique Beaudoin on her new position as Associate Director at Office of Naval Research Global in London–that’s a great job, we wish her well.

Finally, I’m chairing the search for a new Vice President for Research and Economic Development at George Mason–the job announcement is here.  I’d welcome nominations or advice–just drop me a line.

A view of the self…

Kathryn Schulz’s excellent long essay on the master-theory of self-help is here. From her standpoint, the weakness in all self-help approaches is that they posit a dualism. I agree, because all our evidence from neuroscience suggests that brain and mind are unified…

Read it all.

Krasnow Institute PhD alumni wins ATT hackathon in Vegas!

Ruggero Scorcioni is one of our neuroscience PhD alumni. We’re proud of him for other reasons, but here’s his latest brilliant success: he’s the winner of the AT&T hacakthon in Vegas! The story is here. Money quote:

At 41, he has had plenty of time to research brain wave science as well as write computer programs. After receiving a degree in computer science in his native Italy, Scorcioni came to the U.S. 12 years ago to earn a PhD from George Mason University in Virginia in neuroscience.

Kudos to Ruggero and his thesis advisor Giorgio Ascoli!

Back in DC after a working weekend in San Francisco…

The Biological Bulletin held its editorial board meeting again this year at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting. It was great to see some excellent talks and sit down to talk about the journal with my colleagues on the Board. There were some really great ideas for future virtual symposia and the possibility of inviting more junior level scientists to join the board in some capacity.

Meanwhile, I’m impressed lately with United Airlines. They really seem to have turned a corner since the merger with Continental. Flights were on-time and the service was excellent.