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. Gero Miesenboeck | The beginnings of optogenetics |
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Prof. Mark Ellisman | Integrating neuroscience knowledge: Brain research in the digital age | |
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Prof. Markus Meister | Eyes smarter than scientists believed: Neural computations in the retina | |
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Prof. Tobias Bonhoeffer | How experience changes the circuitry of the brain |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Gregory McCarthy | The Social Brain: Perception, Motion and Emotion | |
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Prof. Katrin Amunts | Does bigger mean better? Intersubject variability in human brain anatomy | |
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Prof. Giacomo Rizzolatti M.D | Mirror neurons: a mechanism for understanding others | |
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Prof. Steven Pinker | The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature |
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Prof. Robert T. Knight | Human Prefrontal Cortex and Behavior | |
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Prof. Eric Knudsen | Mechanisms of learning in the auditory system of the barn owl | |
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Prof. Fred Lenz | Human CNS Pain Pathways and Networks | |
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Prof. Benedikt Grothe | Measuring time - the ultimate challenge for sensory systems | |
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Prof. Terrence J. Sejnowski | A Critique of Pure Vision |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Gilles Laurent | PATTERN CLASSIFICATION: LESSONS FROM OLFACTION | |
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Prof. Gina Turrigiano | The self-tuning brain: homeostatic plasticity in neural microcircuits | |
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Prof. Kevan Martin | The Art of Neuroscience | |
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Prof. Ann M. Graybiel | Our Habitual Lives: How the Brain Makes and Breaks Habits |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Prof. Winfried Denk | Watching the brain compute and tracing its wires: new methods to solve old riddles | |
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Prof. Claude P. Ghez, M.D. | Doing many things at once: Controlling dynamics, kinematics and final position in reaching | |
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Prof. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis | Computing with Neural Ensembles | |
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Prof. Mu-ming Poo | Experience-dependent Modification of Developing Neural Circuits |
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Prof Christof Koch | The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach | |
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Prof. Jean-Pierre Changeux | The Physiology of Truth: From Molecular Biology of the Brain to Consciousness | |
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Prof. Philippe Ascher | Shortcuts from molecules to behavior. The case of the NMDA receptor | |
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Prof. Rodolfo Llinas | The Dynamic Origin of Consciousness | |
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Prof. Michale Fee | Inside the Songbird's Brain: The Neural Control of Vocalization |
Speaker | Topic | ||
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Baroness Prof. Susan Greenfield | How the Brain Generates Consciousness? | |
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Prof. Bert Sakmann | Cortical Microcircuits and their Plasticity | |
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Prof. Peter Strick | Basal Ganglia and Cerebellar 'Loops' with the Cerebral Cortex: Circuits for Movement, Cognition and Perception | |
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Prof. Michael E. Goldberg | Tracking the Spotlight of Attention: Psychophysics and Physiological Mechanisms |