The Kavli Prize Laureate Lecture
24 April 2013, 17:00 – 20:00
The Nordic Embassies in Berlin, Rauchstraße 1, 10787 Berlin-Tiergarten
In co-operation with:
Berlinffff
The Kavli Prize is a partnership between
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters,
The Kavli Foundation and
The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research
Programme:
16:30 Registration Please be seated by 16:55
17:00 Welcome Sven E. Svedman, Norwegian Ambassador to Germany
17:05 ”The Kavli Prize: fostering scientific excellence and international cooperation” Ms Kristin Halvorsen, Norwegian Minister of Education and Research
17:20 „Internationale Herausforderungen – internationale Kooperationen: Der Auftrag der Wissenschaft“ Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research
17:35 Short remarks Prof. Dr. Herbert Jäckle, Vice President of the Max Planck Society
17:40 Short remarks Professor Kirsti Strøm Bull President of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
17:45 Lecture: “Following the Brain’s Wires” Kavli Prize Laureate Prof. Dr. Winfried Denk Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg
18:10 Lecture: “Towards an Understanding of Neural Codes” Prof. Dr. Gilles Laurent Director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt
18:35 Reception Exhibition Hall of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin
“Following the Brain’s Wires”
Kavli Prize Laureate Prof. Dr. Winfried Denk To understand neural circuits we need to know how neurons are connected. Over the past decade we have developed methods that allow the reconstruction of neural wiring diagrams via the acquisition and analysis of high-resolution three-dimensional electron microscopic data. We have applied these methods to the retina in order to explore, for example, how direction-selective signals are computed.
“Towards an Understanding of Neural Codes”
Prof. Dr. Gilles Laurent
Understanding the brain requires a knowledge of the fine structure of neural circuits and of the functional rules governing their action. One difficult challenge is that brains and neural circuits are dynamical systems, whose emergent properties can be hard to predict from the knowledge of the parts alone. For example, two neurons reciprocally interconnected by inhibitory junctions can operate in relation to one another in a number of different ways (sometimes literally opposite ways), based on small differences in coupling parameters. Describing, understanding and predicting the behaviors of tens to millions of interconnected neurons (circuits) is therefore that much more difficult; as physicists have observed before, in different contexts: "more is different". In this talk, I will focus on two problems related to the study of neural circuits: in the first, I will examine how we can deal with large datasets of neural activity and find interesting structure in them. In the second, I will address the issue of modes of representation in sensory circuits, to illustrate the non-obvious relationship between network structure and emergent function. Curriculum Vitae Prof. Dr. Winfried Denk
1978-1981: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich 1981-1984: Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland 1984-1989: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 1989: PhD in physics (1990) 1989-1991: IBM Research Lab in Rueschlikon, Switzerland, postdoctoral fellow 1991-1999: Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ, independent research 1999-: Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Department of Biomedical Optics; Director 2002-: Professor, Faculty of Physics, University of Heidelberg Research Grants 2004-2007: Title: Functional imaging of neural networks with non-linear optics Agency: Human Frontier Science Program Honors and Awards 1986-1989: IBM Graduate Research Fellowship 1998: Young Investigator Award of the Biophysical Society 2000: Rank Prize for Opto-Electronics 2003: Leibniz prize of the DFG (German Research Council) 2005: Heller Lecture (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) 2006: Kavli Lecture (Society for Neuroscience) 2008: Henri Sack Lecture (Cornell University, Ithaca) 2012: Kavli Prize in Neuroscience [email protected] http://www.neuro.mpg.de
Banners along Karl Johansgate in Oslo during the Kavli Prize Week. Photo: E. F.Baardsen Curriculum Vitae Prof. Dr. Gilles Laurent
Laurent, Gilles, Prof., D.V.M., Ph.D., Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt/Main
Born 9/8/1960, Casablanca Morocco, French National, married (to Erin Schuman), three daughters. 1985: Ph. D. in Neuroethology (Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France); 1985: Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, National School of Veterinary Medicine, Toulouse, France; 1985-1987: Postdoc, University of Cambridge, UK; 1987-1990: Royal Society Locke Research Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK; 1990-2002: Assistant, Associate and Full Professor of Biology, Computation & Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA; 2002-2010: Lawrence A. Hanson Professor of Biology, Computation & Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA; 2009-: Director, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt/Main. [email protected] http://www.brain.mpg.de
Guests gathered outside Oslo Concert Hall for the Award Ceremony. Photo: Scanpix Kavli Prize Laureates in Astrophysics 2008 Maarten Schmidt, Columbia University, USA Donald Lynden-Bell, University of Cambridge, UK 2010 Jerry E. Nelson, UC Santa Cruz, USA Raymond N. Wilson, European Southern Observatory, Germany Roger Angel, University of Arizona, USA 2012 David Jewitt, UCLA, USA Jane Luu, MIT, USA Michael E. Brown, Caltech, USA
Kavli Prize Laureates in Nanoscience 2008 Louis Brus, Columbia University, USA Sumio Iijima, Meijo University, Japan 2010 Donald M. Eigler, IBM Almaden Research Center, USA Nadrian C. Seeman, New York University, USA 2012 Mildred Dresselhaus, MIT, USA
Kavli Prize Laureates in Neuroscience 2008 Sten Grillner, Karolinska Institute, Sweden Thomas M. Jessell, Columbia University, USA Pasko Rakic, Yale University, USA 2010 Richard M. Scheller, Genentech, USA Thomas C. Südhof, Stanford University, USA James E. Rothman, Yale University, USA 2012 Cornelia Isabella Bargmann, The Rockefeller University, USA Ann M. Graybiel, MIT, USA Winfried Denk, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany
The 2012 Kavli Prize Laureates in Neuroscience receive the award from HM the King. Photo: Scanpix
500 guests attended The Government’s Banquet in Oslo City Hall to honor the Kavli Prize Laureates Photo: Scanpix
The Kavli Prize
The Kavli Prize recognizes scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. The Kavli Prize consists of USD 1,000,000 in each of the scientific fields. In addition to the prize money the laureates receive a scroll and a gold medal.The Kavli Prize is awarded every second year by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
The Kavli Prize was established to: Recognise outstanding scientific research Honour highly creative scientists • Promote public understanding of scientists and their work • Foster international cooperation among scientists •The agreement to establish the Kavli Prize was signed in 2005 by the founder of The •Kavli Foundation, Fred Kavli, Kristin Clemet, Norwegian Minister of Education and Research and Jan Fridthjof Bernt, President of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The Kavli Prize was awarded for the first time in 2008.