TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 2011

STOCKHOLM    MAY 1-8, 2011   AULA MAGNA HALL

PLENARY  9    Quantum biology I 

Thursday, MAY 5       2:00 - 4:10 pm   

              LUC MONTAGNIER, Nobel Laureate

              The  Transfer  of  Biological  Information  Through Electromagnetic Waves  and  Water

      GIUSEPPE VITIELLO              GUSTAV BERNROIDER                            JOHANN SUMMHAMMER 

      University of Salerno              University of Salzburg                               University of Vienna
                                                         Dept. Organismic Biology                        Atom Institut
                                                         Neurosignaling Unit

Luc Montagnier, world renowned virologist and 2008 Nobel Prize recipient, is credited with the 1983 discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), identified as the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Since 1993, Montagnier has been president of the foundation he helped found, the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention and co-directs the Program for International Viral Collaboration. In the 20 years prior to the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Montagnier had also made many significant discoveries concerning the nature of viruses, as well as major contributions to the understanding of how viruses can alter the genetic information of host organisms. Additionally, as founder and director for the Institute Pasteur's viral oncology unit, his work significantly advanced cancer research.  Montagnier's ongoing research focuses on the search for an AIDS vaccine or cure. Dr. Montagnier is also president of the Houston-based World Foundation for Medical Research and Prevention and has received more than 20 major awards, including the Légion d'Honneur, the Lasker Award, and the King Faisal Foundation International Prize (known as the Arab Nobel Prize). In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, joint recipient with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen for the discovery of HIV.

Giuseppe Vitiello is Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Salerno, Italy. His research is focused on spontaneous breakdown of symmetry in elementary particle physics, in condensed matter and in brain modelling. He studies the quantum field dynamics underlying the living matter phenomenology since the early 80s. In a series of papers and in the book “My Double unveiled” he has formulated the dissipative many-body model of brain where coherence and dissipation play a central role. In its continuous interaction with the environment the brain constructs its own image of the external world as its “Double”. Consciousness arises as the permanent dialog with the Double.

Gustav Bernroider  is Associate Professor for Neurobiology, University of Salzburg, Austria.  He is leading a research unit for Neurosignaling and Neurodynamics studies that focuses on neural correlates of higher level brain functions. Bernroider considers the phenomenon of consciousness as a perceptive property. He argues that the physical relation to the phenomenon is basically provided by the transition dynamics from quantum to classical properties of various cellular components in the brain.  In particular this involves ion conduction and ion hosting in membrane channel proteins. He has published his concepts in a series of papers since the mid 90s.

Johann Summhammer is Associate Professor for Experimental Physics at the Atom Institute of the Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. He has carried out numerous experiments and theoretical studies on quantum mechanical phenomena  employing beams of neutrons, electrons and ions. He also applied his quantum physical concepts in diverse experimental fields including research on solar cells. More recently he has developed a focus on quantum effects in biological systems, in particular in fields where these effects can provide explanations to processes building on Darwinian advantage.