In 2002, Morven and Michael Heller from London, a generous and philanthropic family, decided to donate an annual sum of 15,000 pound to establish at the ICNC a high profile series of lectures entitled "The Heller Lecture Series in Computational Neuroscience". This series of lectures continues today at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC). The primary aim of this unique lecture series is to acquaint the interested public with the most recent excitement in brain research. Each year, four leading researchers visit the Hebrew University for a week and deliver two talks, a lecture for the general public as well as a technical presentation at the weekly ELSC seminar.
The "Heller Lecture Series in Computational Neuroscience" rapidly became one of the most prestigious lecture series at the Hebrew University. It is a source of intellectual excitement for the many hundreds of attendees from all over the country who come to enjoy these lectures. Previous Heller lecturers include among others Nobel laureates Edvard Moser and Bert Sakmann as well as Patricia Churchland, Mickey Goldberg, Isabel Gauthier, Carla Shatz, Michale Fee, Arthur Konnerth, and Christof Koch. The lectures cover a fascinating range of topics that reflect the interests of researchers at ELSC, from molecular to cellular and systems neuroscience, cognitive psychology, modeling, and neurophilosophy.
The Hebrew University, and in particular ELSC, are indebted to the Hellers for their vision and generosity and for helping all of us to be aware of the miracle that is our brain.
Recorded Heller Lectures are available online on ELSC media channel
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. György Buzsáki | Ways to think about the brain |
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Prof. Suzana Herculano-Houzel | The costs and advantages of having a human brain or Why you really have to go to school | |
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Prof. Kia Nobre | Perceiving with the benefit of hindsight | |
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Prof. Michael Greenberg | How nature and nurture conspire to control brain development and function |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Massimo Scanziani | Cortical Circuits of Vision | |
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Prof. Christine Petit | Hereditary Hearing Impairment in Humans: From The Underlying Deficits To Emerging Gene Therapies | |
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Prof. Henry Markram | The inevitability of Brain Simulations |
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Prof. Eric Kandel | The Biology of Memory and Age Related Memory Loss | |
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Prof. Lars Chittka | How Bees Learn from Each Other |
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Prof. Brian A. wandell | Surprising stories about the living human brain | |
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Prof. Matteo Carandini | Soloists and Choristers in the Orchestra of the Brain |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Joshua Tenenbaum | Reverse engineering common sense in the human mind and brain | |
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Prof. Drazen Prelec | Rewarding honesty when truth is not verifiable | |
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Prof. Edward M. Callaway | Molecular, Genetic and Viral Approaches for Linking Neural Circuit Structure and Function | |
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Prof. Patricia Smith Churchland | The Brains Behind Morality |
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Prof. Yves Frégnac | The Visual Brain: Computing through Complexity | |
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Prof. Eve Marder | Animal to animal variability and robust behavior to environmental challenge | |
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Prof. Stanislas Dehaene | How learning to read changes the brain | |
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Prof. Wolf Singer | Philosophical Implications of Brain Research: Discrepancies between first and third person perspective |
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Prof. Carla Shatz | Brain Circuit Tuning During Developmental Critical Periods | |
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Prof. Xiaoqin Wang | Pitch and Harmonicity Representations in Auditory Cortex | |
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Prof. Arthur Konnerth | Dendritic structure of sensory inputs to cortical neurons in vivo | |
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Karel Svoboda | Lighting up the neural circuits underlying tactile sensation |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Alexander Borst | Neural Circuits in the Cockpit of the Fly | |
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Prof. Bart de Strooper | The amyloid cascade hypothesis and opportunities for therapeutic developments | |
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Prof. Jean-Pierre Changeux | Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Conscious Processing | |
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Prof. Robert Shapley | Neuronal basis for the unitary perception of color and form | |
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Prof. Dan Feldman | Neural circuits for sparse sensory coding in cerebral cortex | |
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Prof. Marla Feller | From waves to vision: the development of functional circuits in the retina |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Isabel Gauthier | What the perceptual expert cannot tell you | |
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Prof. Eric Young | Plasticity in the brain is not always good: examples from hearing impairment | |
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Prof. Michael Shadlen | Time and belief: A neural mechanism of decision making | |
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Prof. David Kleinfeld | The nature and control of blood flow in the brain |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Nancy Bonini | Flying with Drosophila in the face of neurodegenerative disease | |
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Edvard I. Moser | How does the brain navigate in space | |
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Tomaso Poggio | Intelligence and Learning in Brains and Machines |