News and events

Dr Robert Newport (Macquarie University)

• When: Tuesday 18 February 2025, 4pm
• Where: TBA
• Title: TBA

Robert Newport is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Clinical Medicine, Macquarie University. He is currently developing a solution that allows experts to train their avatars on local 'machines' and, therefore, keep control over the expertise or experience they help an algorithm to train with. This technology will be essential for helping experts to keep control over what organisations do with their accumulated knowledge – allowing for the create of Decision Intelligence marketplaces.

Associate Professor Mac Shine (The University of Sydney)

• When: Tuesday 15 April 2025, 4pm
• Where: TBA
• Title: TBA

Associate Professor Mac Shine is a systems neurobiologist working to understand the mechanisms of cognition and attention using functional brain imaging, both in health and disease. He has a particular interest in understanding how the different arms of the ascending arousal system flexibly modulate the cross-scale organisation of the brain to facilitate adaptive behaviour.

Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith (The University of Sydney)

• When: Tuesday 19 August 2025, 4pm
• Where: TBA
• Title: TBA

Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at The University of Sydney. His research interests are in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind, as well as pragmatism, general philosophy of science, and some parts of metaphysics and epistemology.

2024 speakers

February

• Dr Todd Constable (Yale University). Dr Todd Constable is the Director of MRI in the Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Centre in the Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on mapping the functional organising of the brain through functional MRI measurements and understanding the relationship between this functional organisation and behaviour.

March

• Assistant Professor Tom Froese (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology). Assistant Professor Tom Froese leads the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit at OIST. His research focuses on the interactive basis of life and mind, artificial life and the enactive approach to cognitive science. Tom will be discussing the concept of irruption theory.
• Professor Vinod Goel (Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar). Professor Goel is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, at York University in Toronto. He has authored various articles and books. He has completed his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, Interdisciplinary from University of California at Berkeley. his research interest includes brain imaging (fMRI & PET), patient studies, and computational modelling.
• Professor Andreas Roepstorff (Aarhus University). Professor Andreas Roepstorff is the Director of the Interacting Minds Centre, and Professor in Cognition, Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research involves intersections of neuroscience, anthropology, and psychology, unraveling the complexities of human cognition and social behavior. Through interdisciplinary approaches, he explores how the brain processes information, language, and social interactions within cultural contexts, shaping our understanding of collective human nature.

May

• Dr Robert Hampton (Emory University). Dr Robert Hampton leads the Laboratory of Comparative Primate Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Emory College of Arts and Sciences. His research focusses on cognition, particularly memory and metacognition in nonhuman primates.

June

• Professor Dietrich Stout (Emory University). Professor Dietrich Stout is an anthropologist at Emory University specializing in the evolution of human cognition through stone tool-making. His research combines archaeology, psychology, and neuroscience to explore how early humans developed complex skills and intelligence. Using brain imaging, Stout studies the neural processes behind tool-making, offering insights into the cognitive and motor demands that shaped human evolution.

August

• Suraiya Luecke (University of California). Suraiya Leucke is an early career researcher in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. Her research focuses on the neurophenomology of freediving and the skilled intentionality framework, and how these two factors mutually inform each other in order to better understand cognition in skilled action.
• Professor Barbara Webb (University of Edinburgh). Professor Barbara Webb leads the Insect Robotics Group at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the use of robot models to enhance understanding of how animals, particularly insects, are able to interact successfully in the world.

September

• Professor Nichola Raihani (University College London). Nichola Raihani is a Professor of Evolution and Behaviour at the University of College London. Her research focuses on social behaviour in humans and other species.

2023 speakers

March

• Professor Susan D Healy (Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews, Edinburgh). Professor Healy is a specialist in cognitive evolution and the behavioural studies of birds with specific focus on understanding the neurological basis for this.

April

• Professor Carl F Craver (Washington University, St Louis). Professor Craver is a philosopher of neuroscience. His 2007 book Explaining the Brain is considered a classic text articulating the aims of neuroscience. More recently Craver is pursuing topics in psychiatric genetics and neurophysiology.

May

• Professor Suzana Herculano (Vanderbilt University, Tennessee). Professor Herculano is an Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on brain diversity in evolution, and pioneered the cell counting method to determine how many neuronal and non-neuronal cell composed the brain of different animals.

June

• Professor Dieter Hochuli (Integrative Ecology research group, University of Sydney). Professor Hochuli’s research focuses on how biodiversity responds to the unique pressures of urbanisation, with a particular interest in the ecology of iconic birds, mammals, insects and spiders of cities, and their interactions with the environment and the humans who share their world with them.

September

• Professor John Cartmill (Macquarie Medical School, Macquarie University). Professor John Cartmill MBBS, BSc(med), MM, FRACS is a Professor of Surgery in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Macquarie University. As a colorectal surgeon he practices at Macquarie University Hospital and Nepean Public Hospital. His research interests are informed by linguistics, engineering and psychology and include safety and quality improvement, medical communication, and medical and surgical learning.
• Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen (Queensland Brain Institute). Bruno van Swinderen received his PhD in Evolutionary and Population Biology in 1998 from Washington University and is currently an Associate Professor at the Queensland Brain Institute and The University of Queensland. His research focuses on the mechanisms behind perception of the brain, particularly selective attention, sleep and general anaesthesia. His work focuses on visual perception and how it is affected by these different arousal states.

October

• Professor Agustín Fuentes (Princeton University). Agustín Fuentes received his PhD in Anthropology from The University of California, and is currently a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His research focuses on the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations.

November

• Professor Carl Bergstrom (University of Washington). Carl Bergstrom received his PhD at Stanford University and is currently a professor of biology at University of Washington. His research incorporates mathematical models and computer simulations to study a wide range of problems in population biology, animal behaviour and evolutionary theory.

• Decision intelligences – Technology, practice or philosophy (February 2025)
• Kinds of minds – Transitions workshop (April 2025)
• Cognitive flourishing – Narrative and beyond: Negotiating experiences through Imaginative Practice (22–23 April 2025)
• Kinds of minds – Frameworks workshop (26–27 June 2025)
• Decision architects – A new role in age of AI? (July 2025)

2024

• Mindscapes: Culture AI and Minds, 12 March
• Accelerating research collaboration between Artificial and Natural Intelligences (ARCANI), 26–28 March
• Decision Intelligence workshop, 6 and 8 August
• Cognitive diversity when solving problems or making decision, 29 August
• Evolving Individuality, 2–4 December

2023

• Kinds of Minds Workshop, 6–7 March
• Brain Index Workshop, 21 May – 4 June
• Decision intelligence Workshop part 1, 7 June
• Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference, 26–28 June
• Indigenous Voice Referendum Q&A Forum, 27 July
• Decision intelligence Workshop part 2, 15 November