Lüder Deecke, MD
Full Professor and Head, Department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, professor emeritus since 2006, Deecke is also head of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Functional Brain Topography and is the author of a number of books and more than 580 publications in the fields of neurology, clinical neurology, neurophysiology, clinical neurophysiology, neurosciences, brain research and movement disorders. Lüder Deecke’s scientific discoveries have had a worldwide impact on brain research and the treatment of neurological disorders.
Niels Birbaumer, PhD
Niels Birbaumer, born 1945, PhD 1969 (University of Vienna, Austria) in Biological Psychology, Art History and Statistics. 1975-1993 Full Professor of Clinical and Physiological Psychology, University of Tübingen, Germany. 1986-1988 Full Professor of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, USA. Since 1993 Professor of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tübingen.
Research topics: Neuronal basis of learning and plasticity. Neurophysiology & Psychophysiology of pain. Neuroprosthetics, Neurorehabilitation. More than 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals. 12 books.
Among many awards: Leibniz-Award of the German Research Society (DFG), member of the German Academy of Science and Literature President of the European Association of Behavior Therapy, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American Association of Applied Psychophysiology. Award for Research in Neuromuscular Diseases, Wilhelm-Wundt-Medal of the German Society of Psychology, and the Albert Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council.
Johannes Dichgans, MD
After completing his PhD-studies in Freiburg and Munich in 1962, Johannes Dichgans became attending physician in neurology in Freiburg. Following his habilitation in 1970, Johannes Dichgans worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1972. From 1978 to 2005 he was Director of the Department of Neurology at the University of Tübingen. Johannes Dichgans published extensively across many branches of neurology with special emphasize on brain tumors and functions of the right hemisphere. In 2000 Johannes Dichgans received the Robert Pfleger Research Award for his contributions to experimental and clinical neurology, specifically for his work on the control of movements as well as the pathophysiology of the cerebellum.
Steve Ayan (Moderator)
Steve Ayan studied psychology and translation at the University of Düsseldorf, Naples and Reading (UK). He worked as a freelance translator for Rowohlt, S. Fischer and the Aufbau-Verlag, before he completed his postgraduate studies in journalism at the University of Berlin. In 2003 he joined “Gehirn und Geist”. His main interests are in the field of neuropsychology and consciousness research. Steve Ayan is author of many bestselling books, like “Hilfe – wir machen uns verrückt!” or “Einfach entspannt: 12 sichere Wege zu Ruhe und Gelassenheit“.
Arnold Mandell, MD
Arnold Mandell is an American neuroscientist and psychiatrist. He received his M.D. from Tulane University in 1958. Founding chairman in 1969 of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, he was at the time of his appointment the youngest physician ever appointed as a chairman of a medical school psychiatry program in the U.S. The department was the first in the U.S. to be biologically oriented. After leaving UCSD, he has been involved in studying the basic science and applied mathematics of brain activity and behavior. He is the Director of Research of the Cielo Institute, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Emory University, a Research Professor of Health and Wellness at University of North Carolina, Asheville, Professor of Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, Visiting Scientist at the Core MEG Lab at NIH, and a Senior Research Associate at Scripps Research Institute.
Hal Weinberg, PhD
Hal Weinberg has been at the forefront of the development of Magnetoencepalography (MEG) and Electroencephalogrpahy (EEG) since 1964 when he received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University. His primary teaching and research are in the subjects of the physiology of complex behaviour and brain imaging using EEG and MEG. He was Chair of the International Conference on Biomagnetism, Vancouver, 1984 and 2006 and of the International Advisory Board of the Biomagnetism since 1982.
Margot Taylor, PhD
Dr. Margot Taylor is the Director for Functional Neuroimaging and Diagnostic Imaging at The Hospital for Sick Children. Her research focus has always been on the brain, with an emphasis on brain function. Her current work investigates the neural bases of cognitive development and frontal lobe functions. Her research determines the temporal and spatial properties of the development of frontal lobe functions, such as working memory, inhibition and mental flexibility, and how these cognitive skills are impacted by neurodevelopmental or traumatic events.
Watch Dr. Taylor’s latest talk at TEDx Toronto
Stephen E. Robinson, PhD
Stephen E. Robinson is a pioneer in the development and application of magnetoencephalography (MEG). While working at CTF Inc. (Vancouver, Canada) he was responsible for developing many technical advances that are now indespensible for modern MEG imaging. In 2007, he transitioned to the MEG Core Facility at the NIMH, NIH, USA.
Matthew Brooks, PhD
Matt Brooks received his PhD under supervision of Peter Morris, and intensively worked on understanding MEG and fMRI imaging metrics; He showed that MEG measurements are closely related to invasive electrophysiological recordings made in animals. In 2009, Dr. Brooks secured funding to spend time working with Prof. Sri. Nagarajan in UCSF on developing techniques for measuring electrodynamic functional connectivity in MEG. This was the start of a body of work looking into brain networks and new ways to measure network connectivity using MEG, EEG and fMRI. In 2010 he was awarded a 3 year Leverhulme Trust Fellowship to develop this multimodal neuroimaging strategy. In his most recent work, he has combined beamformer source reconstruction with independent component analysis and multivariate statistical analysis to identify resting state networks in the human brain, applying these new techniques to the study of schizophrenia.
Michal Wibral, PhD
Since 2012 Professor, Brain Imaging Center, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. 2007 – present: Laboratory Head, MEG Unit, Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt (BIC). Supervision of experiments and data analysis – especially beamforming – in the Lab. Development of novel data analysis algorithms. Responsible for the MEG system, the stimulation equipment and the IT infrastructure related to it. 2002 – 2007: PhD student, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Dept. Neurophysiology (Wolf Singer) and Technical University of Darmstadt (Prof. Ralf Galuske) PhD thesis on the effects of anaesthesia and hyperoxia on the BOLD fMRI Signal – investigated using ICA (download pdf); work on neuroelectromagnetic source analysis in visual and cognitive neuroscience. 2000 – 2002: Medical Physics, University of Kaiserslautern Training specialized on Medical Imaging. 1997 – 2002: Semiconductor Process Engineer, R&D Department, sunways AG, Konstanz, Germany. 1991 – 1997: Degree in Physics, University of Cologne and University of Konstanz, Germany
Christian Meisel, MD
Christian Meisel studied medicine and physics at the University of Freiburg. In 2009 he started his residency training in neurology at the University Clinic Dresden. Research fellowships took him to Stanford University (2004-2005), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (2010-2011) and currently the National Institutes of Health (since 2013). His research interests aim for quantitative, theory-based approaches to problems in neuroscience and cortical network activity with a particular focus on the function of sleep and focal epilepsies.
Surjo R. Soekadar, MD
Surjo Soekadar is a research scientist at the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, and resident physician at the University Hospital of Tübingen. From 2009-2011, he was fellow at the Human Cortical Physiology and Stroke Neurorehabilititation Section (HCPS) at the NIH, USA. His research interests include cortical plasticity in the context of brain-machine interface (BMI) applications, non-invasive brain stimulation and neural mechanisms of learning and memory. Dr. Soekadar is member of board of several NGO’s dealing with improving health care in developing countries and served as resource specialist at the Salzburg Global Seminar. He was co-chair of the 2013 International Workshop on Clinical Brain-Machine Interface Systems at the University of Houston, Texas. Dr. Soekadar received various prizes such as the NIH-DFG Research Career Transition Award (2009), the NIH Fellows’ Award for Research Excellence (2011), the International BCI Research Award 2012 (together with Niels Birbaumer) and the Biomag 2014 Young Investigator Award
Olga Šroubková (Violine / Festive Evening)
Olga was born in 1993 in Prague. At the age of four, she began her violin education with her mother Rimma Kotmelová who is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory in class of prof Viktor Pikajzen. Aged eight years, she started her formal violin education at the music school of Prague under the tutelage of prof. Jiří Fišer under whom she now studies at the Prague Conservatory. In 2001 and 2003, Olga was awarded second prize at the Prague Junior Note competition and placed second twice at the International Kocian Violin Competition. In 2011 Olga had the opportunity to take part in Pilsen Master class with Ida Haendel and won the first prize and the laureate title in the Competition of Czech Conservatories.
Following previous successful participation in competitions, in 2013 Olga was awarded first prize at the international competition BRAVO! in Belgium and the second prize and EMCY Prize at the International Competition for Violin, Kloster Schöntal (Germany). In 2006 she gave a joint concert with members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Olga also performed three times in the Rudolfinum with Josef Suk and three times as a soloist in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Transient Dynamic Brain States 