BrainMind Special Forum: Neuromodulation + BCI + AI, June 2-3, 2024 - [VIP REGISTRATION]
BrainMind Special Forum: Neuromodulation + BCI + AI, June 2-3, 2024 - [VIP REGISTRATION]
On June 2-3, 2024, world-renowned experts will take us to the forefront of cognitive innovation. Delve into the rapidly evolving landscapes of neuromodulation, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), and the interaction of artificial and biological intelligence. Immerse yourself in cutting-edge technologies that are transforming lives — enabling people to walk again, talk again, see again, and hear again. Not only are these scientific breakthroughs restoring function, they are offering transformative potential for mental health and human performance. Join us to see how these discoveries are decoding the brain and mind and redefining our relationship with technology for decades to come.
BrainMind gatherings are meticulously curated, bringing together select groups of visionaries, including top-tier investors, prolific philanthropists, trailblazing entrepreneurs, and groundbreaking researchers. We are all driven by a shared passion to unravel the mysteries of the human brain and harness this knowledge for the greater good.
BrainMind is designed to be a self-supporting platform for the advancement of brain-oriented ideas to humanity. By joining us at the benefactor or patron level, you are directly supporting a young artist or scientist’s work at this gathering. In the conference, scholarships are available for artists and scientists on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Diana Saville (dsaville@brainmind.org) if you would like to apply.
BrainMind is a best-in-class community with a shared mission to advance neuroscience innovation that will most benefit humanity.
Participants will explore a curated collection of cutting-edge discoveries in the science of the brain and mind, engage with the scientists behind those ideas, and advise promising early-stage companies - all with the goal of bringing brain science to the world at scale. Attendees are personally selected for their brilliance, effectiveness, sincerity, and intent.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Awe-inspiring short talks from the world's top brain researchers and entrepreneurs
Opportunities to break bread with speakers in small group settings
A chance to discover and advise high-impact companies in the BrainMind space
Discussions on creating a roadmap for philanthropic ventures in brain science
Expert-led breakout discussions on topics like bioelectronic medicine, neural interfaces, wearable technology, machine learning, neurostimulation, and more
Live neuroscience-inspired multisensory performances
A hands-on space to explore neurotechnology
Immersive art exhibitions
HOSTS
SPEAKERS
Speakers at BrainMind are chosen for their uniquely disruptive contributions to their respective fields. All speakers are available to engage with participants. Speakers delivering mainstage talks also host intimate roundtable discussions over lunch and during the afternoon program.
Speakers for the Brain Special Forum on Neuromodulation + BCI + AI include:
Reid is a Silicon Valley stalwart in the modern technology world.
An accomplished entrepreneur and executive, he played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses, including LinkedIn and PayPal. As an investor, he has been instrumental in the success of iconic companies such as Facebook and Airbnb and has helped fast-growing startups like Aurora and Convoy get to scale.
Reid joined Greylock in 2009 and focuses on early-stage investing in products that can reach hundreds of millions of participants. His unique understanding of consumer behavior and a clear-eyed ability to guide startups from inception through ramped-up “blitzscaling” has made him one of the most sought-after advisors, partners, and investors today. Reid was a board observer for Airbnb and currently serves as a board director for Aurora, Blockstream, Coda, Entrepreneur First, Inflection, Joby Aviation, Microsoft, Nauto, and a few early-stage companies still in stealth.
Reid’s core focus is on businesses with network effects. In 2003, he co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network that today has more than 700 million members and a diversified revenue model that includes subscriptions, advertising, and software licensing. Before LinkedIn, Reid served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member and responsible for all of the company’s external relationships.
Reid is a frequent public speaker, known for his approachability and skill at explaining complex topics with lucidity. He is the co-author of Blitzscaling and two New York Times best-selling books: The Start-up of You and The Alliance and Masters of Scale. He also hosts the podcast Masters of Scale.
A California native, Reid spent most of his life in the Bay Area. He earned a B.S. with distinction in symbolic systems from Stanford University and then earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Oxford University. He has honorary doctorate degrees from Babson University and the University of Oulu.
Beyond startups and technology, Reid has a wide range of interests, including politics, board games, science fiction, philosophy, and philanthropy. He serves on several not-for-profit boards, including Kiva, Endeavor, CZI Biohub, the Berggruen Institute, New America, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and the MacArthur Foundation’s Lever for Change. Reid has received various awards for his philanthropic work, including an honorary CBE from the Queen of England and the Salute to Greatness Award from the Martin Luther King Center.
His foundational thesis of the power of networks extends beyond marketplaces and social ecosystems. Recently, it has led to his investments in sectors including autonomous transportation, cryptocurrency, and shipping logistics.
Reid Hoffman, Greylock
Future of AI, Scaling Social Impact
Polina Anikeeva received her BS in physics from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in 2003 and a PhD in materials science and engineering from MIT in 2009. She completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where she created devices for optical stimulation and recording from brain circuits. She joined the MIT faculty in 2011. She serves as the director of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and is an associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. Professor Polina Anikeeva’s group draws inspiration from neurobiology to create minimally invasive materials and devices to interface with the nervous system. Professor Anikeeva’s Bioelectronics Group develops multifunctional, multimaterial fibers that enable optical, electrical, and chemical interfaces with neurons in the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral organs. These fiber-based probes empower neuroscience research by permitting recording and manipulation of neural activity. Taking advantage of low conductivity and negligible permeability of biological matter to weak magnetic fields, the research group designs and synthesizes a range of magnetic nanomaterials capable of transducing remote magnetic signals to stimuli perceived by biological receptors. To date, magnetic nanomaterials have enabled magnetothermal, magnetomechanical, and chemomagnetic modulation of neurons in vivo. The technologies developed in the Bioelectronics Group are advancing the fundamental neuroscience of brain-organ communication and paving the way to minimally invasive treatments of neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Polina Anikeeva, MIT
Photonic and Magnetic Materials, Biomaterials
Ed Boyden is Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology at MIT, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the MIT McGovern Institute, and professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Media Arts and Sciences, and Biological Engineering at MIT. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems, such as the brain, and applies them systematically to reveal ground truth principles of biological function and to repair these systems. These inventions include optogenetic tools, which enable control of neural activity with light; expansion microscopy, which enables ordinary microscopes to do nanoimaging; new tools for high-speed imaging of living biological signals and networks; noninvasive brain stimulation strategies that may help with conditions ranging from Alzheimer's to blindness; and new strategies for inexpensively creating 3-D nanotechnology. He co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering and the MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, and is a faculty member of the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Computational & Systems Biology Initiative, and Koch Institute. Amongst other recognitions, he has received the Wilhelm Exner Medal (2020), the Croonian Medal (2019), the Lennart Nilsson Award (2019), the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (2019), the Rumford Prize (2019), the Canada Gairdner International Award (2018), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013), the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2013), and the Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize (2011). He was named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist list (2013) and the Technology Review World’s "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list (2006), and is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (2019), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017), the National Academy of Inventors (2017), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2018). His group has hosted hundreds of visitors to learn how to use new biotechnologies, and he also regularly teaches at summer courses and workshops in neuroscience, and delivers lectures to the broader public (e.g., TED (2011), TED Summit (2016), World Economic Forum (2012, 2013, 2016)).
Ed Boyden, MIT
Optogenetics, Neural Circuitry Mapping
Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. Dr. Williams has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is triple board-certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, as well as behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry. In addition, he has specific training and clinical expertise in the development of brain stimulation methodologies. Themes of his work include (a) examining the use of spaced learning theory in the application of neurostimulation techniques, (b) development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and (c) identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions. Dr. Williams' work has resulted in an FDA clearance for the world's first non-invasive, rapid-acting neuromodulation approach for treatment-resistant depression. He has published papers in high-impact peer-reviewed journals including Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Results from his studies have gained widespread attention in journals such as Science and New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch as well as in the popular press and have been featured in various news sources including Time, Smithsonian, and Newsweek. Dr. Williams received two NARSAD Young Investigator Awards in 2016 and 2018 along with the 2019 Gerald L. Klerman Award. Dr. Williams received the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists in 2020.
Nolan Williams, Stanford
Need for Speed: How to Match Acuity of Illness to Speed of Effect for Brain Therapeutics
Ana Maiques is a prominent business and innovation figure, whose impact and influence in the fields of entrepreneurship and neuroscience are undeniable. As a co-founder of Neuroelectrics, a company with a bold vision to transform our interaction with the brain through the development of pioneering technologies to monitor and stimulate this vital organ, she has demonstrated exceptional leadership and inspiration.
Under her leadership at Neuroelectrics, the company has achieved remarkable accomplishments, including recognition as one of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in 2016 in the United States, awarded by Entrepreneur magazine. Her impressive career has been acknowledged on multiple occasions, including the prestigious Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs award by Goldman Sachs at the 2022 Builders and Innovators Summit, as well as the distinguished European Union Prize for Women Innovators from the European Commission in 2014, and the title of Most Inspiring Women on the Inspiring Fifty list in Europe for two consecutive years in 2015 and 2016.
In addition to her significant role at Neuroelectrics, Ana Maiques is an active figure in the innovation scene, both in Europe and the United States. She is a permanent member of the European Innovation Council Advisory Board and became a Termeer Fellow at the Henri Termeer Foundation in 2018, reflecting her commitment to scientific and technological advancement.
Equally important is her role as a co-founder of EsTech, a platform for Spanish scale-ups and unicorns dedicated to fostering the growth of innovative companies. Her vision and leadership are fundamental to the realization of this ambitious mission.
Undoubtedly, Ana Maiques is a passionate advocate for gender equality in STEM fields. Her commitment extends beyond business and into creating opportunities for more women to participate in these fields. Through her dedication to Neuroelectrics, she has demonstrated that business success and the promotion of scientific advancements can go hand in hand. Ana is dedicated to business ethics and remains determined to break down barriers and promote a brighter future in science and technology.
Ana Maiques, Neuroelectrics
Neurotwins for Personalized Medicine
David Chalmers is a prominent figure in contemporary philosophy, especially known for his work in the philosophy of mind. Born in Australia in 1966, Chalmers developed an early interest in the nature of consciousness, a topic that has dominated his academic pursuits. He earned his undergraduate degree in pure mathematics at the University of Adelaide before transitioning to philosophy for his graduate studies, earning a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1993. His doctoral dissertation laid the groundwork for his first book, "The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory," published in 1996, which argued against the physicalist account of consciousness and introduced the "hard problem" of consciousness—the question of why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences. Chalmers's introduction of the "hard problem" has significantly shaped discussions in the philosophy of mind, making him a central figure in debates over the nature of consciousness. Beyond the hard problem, he has also contributed to the fields of philosophy of language and metaphysics, exploring topics such as the concept of information, the nature of reality, and the philosophical implications of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Chalmers has held academic positions at various prestigious institutions, including the University of Arizona and the Australian National University. He is also a co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at New York University. His work continues to influence not only philosophers but also researchers in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience, bridging disciplinary divides to explore one of the most perplexing questions: what is consciousness?
David Chalmers, NYU
The Hard Problem of Consciousness, Panpsychism
Maryam M. Shanechi is Dean’s Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Southern California (USC). She is also Founding Director of the newly established USC Center for Neurotechnology. She received her B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, her S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and her postdoctoral training in Neural Engineering and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and UC Berkeley. She conducts research at the intersection of engineering, computation, and neuroscience to develop closed-loop neurotechnology and study the brain through decoding and control of neural dynamics. She is the recipient of several awards including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, ASEE’s Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, MIT Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35, Popular Science Brilliant 10, Science News SN10, One Mind Rising Star Award, and a DoD Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Award. She was named a 2023 Blavatnik National Awards Finalist and is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Maryam Shanechi, USC
AI-based Neurotechnology
Dr. Kafui Dzirasa is the first African American to complete a PhD in Neurobiology at Duke University. His research interests focus on understanding how changes in the brain produce neurological and mental illness. Kafui obtained an MD from the Duke University School of Medicine in 2009 and completed residency training in General Psychiatry in 2016. Kafui was featured on CBS 60 Minutes and has been awarded the One Mind Rising Star Award and the Sydney Baer Prize for Schizophrenia Research. In 2017, he was recognized as 40 under 40 in Health by the National Minority Quality Forum, and the Engineering Alumni of the Year from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Kafui was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE): the nation’s highest award for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. He has also been recognized with the Alan Leshner Public Engagement Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board for TEDMED and currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director. Kafui is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator.
Kafui Dzirasa, Duke University, The Collective for Psychiatric Neuroengineering
Psychiatric Neuroengineering, cell type specific neuromodulation
Elena Koustova, PhD, MBA, is currently leading a team of superheroes focused on delivering the technical solutions to the opioid crisis at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the NIH. She coordinates NIDA’s multimillion small business programs, establishes the strategic partnerships in areas of product development, entrepreneurship, translational research, innovation and technology transfer, and manages NIDA’s Challenge program through the prize authority. NIDA’s support resulted in creating the thriving community of entrepreneurs engaged in development of diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices, including diagnostic tests and digital health technologies to help combat the opioid crisis and achieve the goal of preventing and treating substance use disorders.
Elena Koustova, NIH/NIDA
Innovating on Funding for Innovation
Dr. Hochberg’s research focuses on the development and testing of novel neurotechnologies to help people with paralysis and other neurologic disorders, and on understanding cortical neuronal ensemble activities. As IDE Sponsor-Investigator, Principal Investigator and lead Clinical Investigator of the pilot clinical trials of the BrainGate2 Neural Interface System, he has been honored with the Joseph Martin Prize in Basic Research, the Herbert Pardes Prize for Excellence in Clinical Research, and the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association, and has received grant awards from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the ALS Association, the American Heart Association, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Institutes of Health (NIDCD and BRAIN Intitiative/NINDS). Dr. Hochberg’s research has been published in leading journals such as Nature and the Journal of Neuroscience. He received his Sc.B. with Honors in Neural Science from Brown University in 1990. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Emory University in 1999, where he was continued an intern in Internal Medicine. He was a resident and Chief Resident in Neurology at MGH/BWH/Harvard Medical School, where he also completed a fellowship in Stroke/Neurocritical Care in 2004.
Leigh Hochberg, Brown University
BrainGate: Implantable BCIs for the Restoration of Communication and Mobility
Heather Berlin is a neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, and associate clinical professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She explores the neural basis of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric and neurological conditions with the goal of developing novel treatments. She is also interested in the brain basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity.
Berlin is a committee member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a passionate science communicator. She hosts the Nova series “Your Brain”, and has hosted series on PBS and Discovery Channel. She makes regular appearances on StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and has appeared on the BBC, History Channel, Netflix, and National Geographic. She co-wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway show, Off the Top, about the neuroscience of improvisation, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Impulse Control.
Heather received her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, and Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and trained in clinical neuropsychology at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery. She was a visiting scholar at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a Visiting Professor at Vassar College, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/University of Zurich, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Heather Berlin, Mount Sinai
Neural basis of Impulsivity and Compulsivity, Targeted Stimulation
Michael McCullough, M.D., M.Sc. is the Founder of BrainMind. He is an EIR at Greylock Partners, impact investor and Partner at Capricorn Healthcare, social entrepreneur, and emergency room professor at UCSF. Michael’s personal interest in the brain extends from a childhood brain hemorrhage which resulted in hydrocephalus and a severe stutter, partially corrected by brain surgery at age 10 and requiring Michael to retrain himself to speak through high school and early college at Stanford. Accomplishing fluent speech also required extensive biofeedback and meditation practice. After returning from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Michael co-founded QuestBridge during free hours in medical school at UCSF and his surgical residency at Stanford. QuestBridge, a national non-profit, now places more talented low-income students into top colleges like Stanford, Yale, Caltech, and MIT than all other non-profits combined. Michael has since founded or co-founded 12 successful companies and non-profits.
Michael is a founder of RegenMed Systems, a co-founding investor of HeartFlow, and on the founding board of 2U -- all top performing impact investments. Michael also served/serves on the boards of the Metabiota, the Global Leadership Incubator, QuestBridge, and the Dalai Lama Foundation among others, and serves as an on-call ER physician for the Dalai Lama during his visits to the West Coast.
Michael McCullough, BrainMind
BrainMind Today and Beyond
Karen Rommelfanger is the program director of the Neuroethics Program at the Ethics Center and is an associate professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Emory. Dr. Rommelfanger received her PhD in neuroscience from Emory University. She is also the senior associate editor for the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience and board member of the International Neuroethics Society. Rommelfanger also serves as a member of the BRAIN Initiative's Neuroethics Working Group and on the advisory council to the director of NIH for BRAIN 2025. In her recent international work, she is co-chair of the International Brain Initiative's Neuroethics Workgroup and is a member of the Global Futures Council on neurotechnology for the World Economic Forum.
One area of her current research explores the nature and utility of placebo using psychogenic movement disorders as a therapeutic model. Another area includes brain-machine interfaces (such as deep-brain stimulation or brain-to-brain interface). An overarching theme in her work is the exploration of how evolving neuroscience and neurotechnologies challenge societal definitions of disease and medicine with a focus on predictive technologies. She is also engaged in research in cross-cultural neuroethics. To that end, she is leading the Global Neuroethics Summit series convening of all national-level brain projects around the globe to engage in neuroethics collaboration and discourse; she also serves as the US BRAIN Neuroethics Division ambassador to the Human Brain Project's Ethics Advisory Board, a member of the China-India Mental Health Alliance, and a board member of the International Neuroethics Society.
Dr. Rommelfanger has been a neuroscience researcher for more than 10 years and her work has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Neuroscience; her research on Parkinson's Disease has been featured in the popular media, including Scientific American. She has presented her work at both international and national conferences and has worked in prestigious laboratories in the US and Japan using a broad array of neurotechnologies from brain imaging and behavioral techniques to electrophysiological recording of individual brain cells.
She regularly gives neuroethics talks at both universities and for general audiences; her neuroethics work has been published in top neuroethics journals and in Nature Reviews Neurology and Neuron. Rommelfanger maintains and writes for The Neuroethics Blog at Emory. Her public scholarship has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Nature blogs and she has been quoted in popular media outlets such as The New York Times and USA Today. Rommelfanger also founded NEW (NeuroEthicsWomen) Leaders, an organization that aims to cultivate professional development and scholarly networks for women and under-represented groups in neuroethics. She believes that neuroethics training gives neuroscientists a creative edge and that neuroethics discussions are critical for academics and general audiences alike in order to ensure maximal benefit of neuroscience discoveries for society.
Karen Rommelfanger, Ningen Neuroethics Co-Lab, Institute of Neuroethics Think and Do Tank
Designing Ethical Neurofutures
Amy Baxter is an esteemed academic physician entrepreneur renowned for her innovative work in pain management and medical technology. As CEO and CMO of Pain Care Labs, she leads the development of groundbreaking thermomechanical neuromodulatory pain relievers like VibraCool and Buzzy, which address critical aspects of the opioid crisis and vaccine nonadherence. With NIH-funded research spanning opioid prevention devices to needle phobia, Amy has been at the forefront of medical innovation. Recognized globally for her contributions, she continues to advocate for patient-centric approaches and remains dedicated to revolutionizing pain management and healthcare as a whole.
Amy Baxter, Pain Care Labs
AI-based Neurotechnology
Paul Sajda is Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Radiology (Physics) at Columbia University. He is also a Member of Columbia’s Data Science Institute. Sajda is interested in what happens in our brains when we make a rapid decision and, conversely, what processes and representations in our brains drive our underlying preferences and choices, particularly when we are under time pressure. His work in understanding the basic principles of rapid decision-making in the human brain relies on measuring human subject behavior simultaneously with cognitive and physiological state. Important in his approach is his use of machine learning and data analytics to fuse these measurements for predicting behavior and infer brain responses to stimuli. Sajda applies the basic principles he uncovers to construct real-time brain-computer interfaces that are aimed at improving interactions between humans and machines. He is also applying his methodology to understand how deficits in rapid decision-making may underlie and be diagnostic of many types of psychiatric diseases and mental illnesses. Of particular interest to Sajda is how different areas in the human brain interact to change our arousal state and modulate our decision-making. Specifically he is using simultaneous EEG and fMRI together with pupillometry to identify and track spatiotemporal interactions between the anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and subcortical nuclei such as the locus coeruleus. He has found that the dynamics of these interactions are altered under stress, particularly when dealing with high-pressure decisions with critical performance boundaries. These findings are being transitioned to applications ranging from to tracking pilot cognitive state while operating fighter aircraft to identifying biomarkers of healthy thought patterns in patients being treated for major depressive disorder and/or complicated grief. Sajda is a co-founder of several neurotechnology companies and works closely with a range of scientists and engineers, including neuroscientists, psychologists, computer scientists, and clinicians.
Paul Sajda, Columbia University
Machine Learning, Arousal States, Decision Making
Doris Tsao is a distinguished neuroscientist specializing in primate vision. Renowned for her groundbreaking work in utilizing fMRI-guided electrodes to investigate visual processing in monkeys, she is best known for her discovery of the macaque face patch system, a vital model for understanding object recognition in the brain. Graduating from Caltech with majors in biology and math, she earned her PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University in 2002. After leading independent research at the University of Bremen, she joined Caltech in 2009 and attained full professorship in 2014. Recognized as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2015, her accolades include the Eppendorf and Science International Prize in Neurobiology, Technology Review TR35, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, Golden Brain Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, her research focuses on deciphering the brain's representation of the visual world, particularly in understanding facial recognition and the neural encoding of object identity. Her lab's pioneering discoveries elucidate the hierarchical organization of face-selective regions in the inferotemporal cortex and shed light on the brain's mechanisms for processing dynamic 3D scenes. With a goal to comprehend the interplay between various brain regions in perception, her long-term objective is to unravel the intricate processes underlying inference in the perception of complex real-world scenes.
Doris Tsao, UC Berkeley
Visual Perception, Neural System for Face Processing
Thomas J. Oxley is a brain-computer interface specialist and the founder and CEO of Synchron, a neural interface technology company. At Synchron, Oxley is developing an endovascular, implantable brain-computer interface, Stentrode, which aims to provide treatment for patients with debilitating illnesses. The device can record stable brain activity from within a blood vessel and transmit features of motor intent that can drive control of digital consumer devices. Synchron recently completed enrolment its second human clinical trial and is preparing for a pivotal clinical trial ahead of an industry first market approval. Oxley completed his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. He completed an endovascular neurosurgery fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He has performed more than 1,600 endovascular neurosurgical procedures and has published more than 130 internationally peer reviewed articles (H-Index 30) in journals including Nature Biotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet.
Thomas Oxley, Synchron, Mount Sinai
Implantable Neurotechnology: A revolution in Medicine Repeating Itself
Helen S. Mayberg, MD, is a neurologist renowned for her study of brain circuits in depression and for her pioneering deep brain stimulation research, which has been heralded as one of the first hypothesis-driven treatment strategies for a major mental illness. She is the founding Director of Mount Sinai Health System's The Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics, a center which advances precision surgical treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders through the rapid conversion of neuroscience and neuroengineering innovations that correct brain circuit abnormalities to restore mood as well as motor and cognitive functioning. As a behavioral neurologist, Dr. Mayberg has established an international reputation for her pioneering research to map the brain circuits implicated in depression. Early in her career, she developed one of the first “network” models for mood disorders—incorporating fundamentals of neuroanatomy and brain connections with imaging technologies—to propose an alternative neurological view of this classical psychiatric condition that extended beyond the neurochemical models that had dominated for decades. Dr. Mayberg received an MD from the University of Southern California. She trained at the Neurological Institute of New York at Columbia University and was a post-doctoral fellow in nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Immediately prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Mayberg was Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology and held the inaugural Dorothy C. Fuqua Chair in Psychiatric Neuroimaging and Therapeutics at Emory University School of Medicine. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.
Helen Mayberg, Mount Sinai
What is Well?
AGENDA
MONDAY, June 3rd, 2024
DAY 2: NEUROMODULATION + BCI + AI
8:00 AM Breakfast & Registration, Experiential NeuroLab opens
9:00 AM Welcome and Musical Performance
9:20 AM Plenary Session
12:45 PM Lunch with Speakers
2:00 PM Guided Meditation/Immersive Experience
2:30 PM Breakout Discussions
4:00 PM Fireside Chat with Reid Hoffman
5:00 PM Closing Reception
6:00 PM Close
——————
SUNDAY, June 2nd, 2024
DAY 1: NEUROMODULATION + BCI + AI
8:00 AM Breakfast & Registration, Experiential NeuroLab opens
9:00 AM Welcome and Musical Performance
9:20 AM Plenary Session
12:45 PM Lunch with Speakers
1:45 PM Entrepreneur Spotlight
3:00 PM Breakout Discussions
4:15 PM Immersive Experience
5:00 PM Day 1 Summary
5:15 PM Reception
6:30 PM A Feast of Ideas: Dine with BrainMind Experts
PARTICIPANTS
BrainMind Special Events are invite-only. All participants are members of the BrainMind ecosystem and are carefully selected for potential contribution, influence, and intent.
ENTREPRENEUR SPOTLIGHT
Featured entrepreneurs will present groundbreaking ideas and pose impact-related questions to participants. Spotlight entrepreneurs will also host breakout discussion tables. Our Experiential Neurolab will also feature live demos from neurotech entrepreneurs in the BrainMind Ecosystem.
Previous spotlight entrepreneurs include:
BREAKOUT DISCUSSIONS
Roundtables with 8-12 participants convene around preselected BrainMind topics with brilliant subject matter experts who are leaders in their respective fields. The breakouts are designed to encourage conversation and collaboration with presenters and other great minds.
Previous discussion modules include:
BREAKOUT LEADERS
Haleh Fotowat, PhD (Wyss Institute)
Biological Robots for Neural Tissue Repair
Blake Gurfein, PhD (Humanity Neurotech)
Non-invasive Neurotech for Brain Inflammation and Cancer
Matthew Sacchet, PhD (Harvard Medical School, MGH)
Beyond “Mindfulness” Toward a Science of Advanced Meditation
Nina Vasan, PhD (Stanford)
AI in Mental Health Innovation
Andre Fenton, PhD (NYU)
Neural Basis of Memory: Learning to Learn
Sridevi V. Sarma, PhD (Johns Hopkins University)
Novel Treatments for Epilepsy and Chronic Pain
Michael Lim, MD (Stanford)
Advances in Neuro-oncology
John Ngai, PhD (NIH BRAIN Initiative)
Neurotechnology Innovation
Feast of Ideas: Dinner with BrainMind Experts
MULTISENSORY EXPERIENCES
BrainMind recognizes the arts as a key pathway to brain health and wellbeing, which is why we prioritize featuring outstanding artists and immersive experiences at all our gatherings.
New York City Musical Curators: Anna Gabriel and Michael Hermann, Reverberation
Reverberatation Featuring Neurosteer Tech
Michael Hermann and Anna Gabriel are cofounders of Reveberation with world renowned artist Peter Gabriel.
Reverberation operates at the convergence of music, science, technology, and medicine, wrapped in compelling entertainment and transformative tech. The studio explores music's impact on our brains and activities, creating media spanning books, TV, digital media, education, and live events. Reverberation aims to address some of the world’s most vexing problems through scientifically-rooted music and sound interventions.
Dr. Dunn’s paintings and reflective microetchings deeply fuse art and science, attempting to illuminate the unfathomable complexities of our minds. Dunn’s art includes ink paintings on gold leaf exploring the spontaneous branching of a handful of pyramidal neurons to incredibly intricate, large scale reflective etchings such as Self Reflected that animate the collective activity of half a million neurons at once. In prints, paintings, hanging scrolls, and etchings, Dunn’s works bridge the micro to the macro to change the way in which the average person thinks about the brain. It hopes to reinstill the sense of awe, even to those of us who struggle with various neurological ailments, and to hopefully remind us that our brains are a thing of wonder.
Dr. Dunn has works in collections around the world including permanent installations at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the Museum of Science in Boston, Caltech and Johns Hopkins Universities, and the Society for Neuroscience headquarters among many others. Past exhibitions have included the Pompidou Museum in Paris, the National Gallery of China in Beijing, Sotheby’s New York, the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, and the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. Dunn’s NSF funded project Self Reflected executed in collaboration with Dr. Brian Edwards has won international acclaim and is widely regarded as the most complex artistic rendering of the human brain in existence.
Dr. Dunn has lectured extensively about his work in many destinations around the world, oftentimes for eclectic groups of artists, scientists, engineers, and those with a love for the brain. In addition to artwork sales, lectures, exhibitions, and installations, Greg licenses images and video for books, magazines, documentary films, nonprofits, and educational platforms.
After a stroke left him without the use of his right hand, guitarist Ken McCaw had a choice to make: become an ex-musician, or somehow find a way to play using only his left hand. That challenge led him to rethink his entire approach to the instrument, and the amazing results can be heard on his debut CD ‘On The Other Hand’.
Now as an in-demand conference keynote speaker Ken embodies his personal message of resilience, creativity and humour.
Sarah Meyohas is a conceptual artist whose practice considers the nature and capabilities of emerging technologies in contemporary society. Using the familiar emblems of biological life, Meyohas investigates the complex operations that increasingly govern our world: soaring birds, created using augmented-reality software, flock in unison with the frenetic variations of the stock market; rose petals, aggregately identical but individually unique, comprise the dataset for their AI-created equivalents; Bitchcoin, a cryptocurrency backed by physical artworks, questions the speculative value of cryptocurrency and the ineffable value of art. Meyohas creates an intelligible visual language to articulate the systems and technologies that increasingly influence our world.
Meyohas is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery and has been exhibited in New York at Red Bull Arts, 303 Gallery, Rockefeller Center, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art and internationally at institutions including the Barbican Centre, London, the Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, and the Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai. Her work is also in the collection of The Centre Pompidou, Paris. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Vice, and Artforum, and has appeared on CNBC, PBS, and CBC. Her film Cloud of Petals has been screened at various film festivals around the world, including the Slamdance Film Festival and the Locarno Film Festival. In 2017 she was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Meyohas holds dual degrees in Finance and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and in 2015 received her M.F.A. from Yale University.
EXPERIENTIAL NEUROLAB
BrainMind Summits always include a hands-on Experiential NeuroLab with exciting inventions, technology demonstrations, and artistic exhibits. Past experiences include mind-controlled visual media, AR and VR-based technologies, real human brains, 10-100x expanded brain segments, neuroscience-driven perceptual illusions, immersive education experiences, and more.
BRAIN-HEALTHY CUISINE
New research indicates that diet plays a significant role in brain function, impacting everything from memory to risk for brain diseases. We put these exciting findings into practice at our gatherings. You won’t find junky conference fare at our forum. Meals and snacks served at BrainMind feature foods and ingredients with published findings for brain health benefit. Learn more about our approach here.
DETAILS
Dates: Sunday - Monday, June 2nd - 3rd, 2024
Time: Forum: 8:00AM - 6:00 PM both days, Feast of Ideas at 6:30PM on June 2nd
Location: Exact location details will be disclosed upon registration
Hotels: See our recommended hotels here