| “Illusion and Reality: At the Boundary of Art and Science” Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix |
||||
 |
Monday, April 9, 2007 Pearl Stable at the Historic Pearl Brewery |
 |
||
Susana Martinez-Conde completed her PhD in Spain, followed by postdoctoral studies in the Harvard Medical School laboratory of Nobel Laureate David Hubel (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981). Her research focuses on the neurobiology of visual awareness, perception, illusions and art and her work has been published in top academic journals as well as in popular science magazines, such as Scientific American (in press).
Susana is a Founding Member and Executive Chair of the Neural Correlate Society, which hosts the Annual “Best Visual Illusion of the Year” contest. "The contest is a celebration of the ingenuity and creativity of the world’s premier visual illusion research community. Visual illusions are those perceptual experiences that do not match physical reality." The San Antonio-based Mind Science Foundation (MSF) sponsored the prize for the “Best Visual Illusion of the Year” in 2006.
Susana has given lectures to several arts organizations and museums. She will speak on the intersection of art and science in visual illusions and how artists have developed visual tricks to fool the eyes and entertain the mind.
Susana is married to vision researcher Stephen Macknik, also at the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI), and is the mother of 5-month old Iago. Stephen and Iago will accompany this very busy “science mom” for her first lecture ever in San Antonio.
Dr. Martinez-Conde was elected to the Board of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) in 2005 and will co-chair the 11th Annual Meeting of the ASSC in June 2007. The Mind Science Foundation has been the lead sponsor of the ASSC annual conference for the past two years – at Cal-Tech in 2005 and Oxford in 2006. At both conferences, presentations by MSF’s “Tom Slick Research Awardees” were voted the best presentations of the conference – receiving more “Excellent” ratings than any other presentation.
In 2005, Susana chaired the 25th Annual European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), held in her home country of Spain. Prior to assuming her current role as Director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at BNI, she directed laboratories at University College London, UK.