Can we understand the mind and consciousness?   Science in the Pub Number 60 With panelists Max Coltheart and Peter Slezak Compered by Paul Willis Wednesday, March 14th 2001, 7:00-9:00pm Harlequin Inn, 152 Harris Street, Pyrmont, Sydney A special event for "Brain Awareness Week" – Can we understand the mind and consciousness? Featuring Professor Max Coltheart, Director of the Maquarie Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Macquarie University, and Dr Peter Slezak, a philosopher from the Program in Cognitive Science, in the School of Science & Technology Studies at the University of New South Wales. Both stars from the ABC's FAQ! Compered by ABC reporter Dr Paul Willis. Professor Max Coltheart is a cognitive scientist who does research on the psychology of reading ad learning to read, the effects of brain damage on the mind, and delusions. He was born in Melbourne and lived in Brisbane, next near Canberra, and then near Bega, before coming to the University of Sydney in 1957, where he spent ten years (from undergraduate student of psychology and philosophy through PhD student to lecturer). After that he held positions at Monash University, the University of Waterloo in Canada, the University of Reading in England, the University of London and Macquarie University, with brief periods at Emory University, the University of Padova, the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge, England, the CNRS laboratory in Marseilles, and Harvard University. Since January 1 2000 he has been full-time Director of the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, a Special Research Centre funded by the Australian Research Council and Macquarie University, and so is currently on leave from his post as professor in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie for the lifetime of the Centre. It is hoped that this Centre will run until the end of 2008, by which time he will be 70, and will have to consider his position. Dr Peter Slezak is a philosopher from the Program in Cognitive Science, in the School of Science & Technology Studies at the University of New South Wales. His principal areas of research include the problems of mental representation in cognitive science, particularly the issue of visual imagery. He has made a modest venture out of the armchair to conduct experiments proving the leading psychologists' pictorial theories of imagery are wrong. His other research interests include the work of Renes Descartes (who incidentally got the theory of visual imagery right in 1637). Other research areas include rational decision-making, Chomsky's linguistics, and artificial intelligence and the limitations computer intelligence allegedly following from Gšdel's Incompleteness Theorem. In his spare time he publishes vitriolic articles on post-modernist, relativist, social constructivist approaches to science as a combatant in the 'Science Wars'. Peter completed his first degree in social sciences at UNSW and his PhD in philosophy at Columbia University, New York. He has been lecturing in the School of Science & Technology Studies (formerly 'History & Philosophy of Science') since 1981 where he established Australia's first centre and graduate degree program in cognitive science. Max's Poem: Freud was widely feted For his theory of how the conscious and unconscious minds are related People were less impressed By his research on the sexual organs of 3000 male eels (in Trieste) Which really annoyed Freud Peter shows a rather unusual approach to his poem composition, providing not one, but two poems: 1. There was a young lady from Crewe Whose limericks stopped at line two. 2. There was a young man from Verdun. Science in the Pub™ is an initiative of the Australian Science Communicators (NSW). Regular sessions are staged from 7.00-9.00 pm on the last Wednesday of every even month (February - October) at the Harlequin Inn, 152 Harris Street, Pyrmont in Sydney.   Admission costs $5 worth of raffle tickets, your chance to win one of many excellent prizes! We can organise Science in YOUR Pub anywhere in Australia, or the world! Please contact Robyn Stutchbury, phone: 02 9427 6747; fax: 02 9427 6767; email: Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@bigpond.net.au.  Visit our website at http://www.scienceinthepub.com/. Future Science in the Pub sessions (see the website for full details): Sunday April 29, 2001, King O'Malleys Pub, Canberra, 4-6pm. Science in the Pub Plays Games. With John de Margheriti and Professor Kevin Durkin. Part of the Australian Science Festival. June, 2001, 'Spirituality in the Pub', with Dr. Martin Hendry from Glasgow University. Tuesday July 10, 2001, at the CONASTA conference (Australian Science Teachers Association), in Sydney. With Margaret Wertheim and Kirsten Benkendorff (Young Scientist of the Year, 2000). On Science Ethics across the Board. September 2001, as part of the Australian Science Communicator's annual conference, 2001 A Science Odyssey: Chance for Change.
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.