Schedule

Public Lecture

David Eagleman (Class of 1993) is a neuroscientist, author and science communicator. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a New York Times Best selling author of a number of popular science books about the brain, as well as the writer and presenter of The Brain with David Eagleman and the host of the podcast Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman.

Breakfast/Welcome from President and Provost

Topic #1: Solving the aging brain? Approaching the DPRIT challenge

The first topic takes a dive deeper into understanding and treating the brain diseases associated with aging, particularly dementia. How can we develop equitable, scalable approaches to reducing the looming economic and societal consequences of these disorders?

Costanza Cortes, Gerontology, University of Southern California
Bruno Kluwe-Schiavon, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, UT Health Sciences
Audrey Duarte, Psychology, UT Austin
Lauren Nicholas, Geriatrics, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus
Nancy Berlinger, Hastings Center
Alice Luo Clayton, Executive Director, McKnight Brain Research Foundation

Moderator: Rosa Uribe, Co-Director Neuroscience Initiative, Rice Brain Institute

Lunch + Provocation Talk #1: Neuroscience needs the Arts

Memo Akten & Katie Hofstadter are Southern California based interdisciplinary artists, researchers, and collaborators whose work investigates the entanglements of technology, consciousness, embodiment, and culture. Merging backgrounds in dance, writing, poetry, drawing, sculpture, computer science, artificial intelligence, computational art, and public practice, they create speculative simulations, data dramatizations, immersive installations, and narrative experiments that probe the human condition in an age of artificial intelligence and accelerating transformation. Together, their collaborative research and practice explore how emerging technologies—particularly AI and data systems—interact with the embodied, emotional, and ecological dimensions of human experience.

Topic #2 Next generation neuroscience inspired cures

The second topic will focus on a broader set of new advances in cures for diseases of the brain, across genetic, pharmacological, or neuromodulatory approaches, along with social and ethical considerations for these new approaches.

Sameer Sheth, Neurosurgery, BCM
Huda Zogbhi, Director, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, BCM
Tim Schroeder, Philosophy, Rice
Christina Tringides, Materials Sciences & NanoEngineering, Rice
Rua Williams, Applied and Creative Computing, Purdue
Matthew Liao, Director, Center for Bioethics, NYU

Moderator: Behnaam Aazhang – Director, Rice Brain Institute/Rice NEI

Provocation Talk #2: Neuroscience needs to think about Culture

Cristine Legare is a professor of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin and the director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science. Her research examines the interplay of the universal human mind and the variations of culture to study cognitive and cultural evolution. She will discuss the need to take cultural variation into account when translating neuroscience into applications that have sustaining societal impact.

Dinner at the Moody Center & Performance of “Free Rein”

"Free Rein" is a real-world neuro-imaging study of creativity. Two dancers will be wearing wireless mobile brain-body imaging equipment while performing a 35 minute dance work that alternates between fixed and improvised music and dance. The musical score was composed by Anthony Brandt, Professor of Composition at the Shepherd School, who also conceived of the study. Choreography is by Andy and Dionne Noble, Artistic Directors of NobleMotion Dance. The research team is headed by neuroscientist Anna Abraham, Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity at the University of Georgia and bioengineer Andrew Nordin from the University of Houston.

Anthony Brandt, Professor of Composition at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University
Andy Noble, Co-Artistic Director, NobleMotion Dance
Dionne Noble, Co-Artistic Director, NobleMotion Dance
Anna Abraham, Director, Torrance Center for Creativity, University of Georgia
Andrew Nordin, Assistant Professor, University of Houston
Badie Khaleghian, Assistant Professor of Digital Music, Bowdoin College

Topic #3: Neuroscience-informed education policy and practice

The third topic focuses on how neuroscience research impacts education policy and practice, focusing both on the research to policy pathway and how typical practice in neuroscience may contribute to educational inequity or lose some of what is critical about learning.

Flavio Cunha, Economics, Rice
Mark Seidenberg, Psychology, University of Wisconsin
Anna Abraham, Director, Torrance Center for Creativity, University of Georgia
Robert Englebretson, Linguistics, Rice
Rachael Gabriel, Literacy Education, University of Connecticut
Oscar Woolnough, Neurosurgery, UT-Health
Maryellen MacDonald, Psychology, University of Wisconsin

Moderator: Simon Fischer-Baum, Co-Director Brain & Society, Rice Brain Institute

Lunch & Provocation Talk #3: Neuroscience needs Public Health

Luz Garcini is the Director for Center for Community and Public Health at Kinder Institute and an Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences. Her research, community, advocacy and policy work focuses on identifying, understanding, and addressing the health needs of historically marginalized communities from a biobehavioral and sociocultural perspective

Topic #4: Towards a brain economy transformation

Agustín Ibáñez, Director of the Latin American Brain Health Institute at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and Professor in Global Brain Health at GBHI in Trinity College
Kana Enomoto, Director of Brain Health, McKinsey Health Institute
Steve Carnevale, Blue Ash Ventures

Moderator: Harris Eyre, Co-Director, Brain & Society, Rice Brain Institute

Provocation Talk #4: Neuroscience in the Political Sphere

Facundo Manes is a neurologist, neuroscientist, bestselling author, and public leader from Argentina whose work explores the intersection of brain science, society, and democratic life. Alongside his medical and scientific career, Dr. Manes served as an elected National Congressman, where he chaired the Committee on Science, Innovation, and Technology and was the author and key driving force behind Argentina’s Brain Health Bill—an unprecedented piece of legislation advancing the use of neuroscientific evidence in public policy. His work focuses on how neuroscience can inform culture, governance, and long-term societal development.

Summary discussion and next steps

Organizing committee will lead a final discussion to tie together the themes of the conference and plan for next steps towards bridging the gap between neuroscience research and impact on society