Stuart Hameroff MD is Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Hameroff became interested in intelligent behavior of microtubules, protein lattices which organize activities within living cells. Hameroff and colleagues developed theories of microtubules as self-organizing molecular computers. In the 1990s Hameroff teamed with Sir Roger Penrose on the controversial Penrose-Hameroff "Orch OR" model of consciousness based on quantum computing in brain neuronal microtubules, a notion bolstered by recent evidence. In Orch OR, Penrose physics connects brain microtubules to the most basic level of the universe - fundamental spacetime geometry at the Planck scale. At that level, Penrose had also proposed Platonic information could guide, or influence conscious choices and perceptions. Viewing consciousness as such a process in the fabric of the universe, Hameroff suggests, provides plausible scientific explanations for spirituality - inter-connectedness through entanglement, accessible Planck scale wisdom, and potential afterlife and reincarnation. A full-time clinical anesthesiologist, Hameroff also organizes the biennial interdisciplinary conferences The Science of Consciousness Conference Series, aka "Toward a Science of Consciousness".
Co-Director, Center for Consciousness Studies; Co-Chair, Science of Consciousness Conference Committee
University of Arizona Regents’ Professor, Linguistics, Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, BIO5 Founder and past director of several interdisciplinary programs at Columbia and Rochester Universities, bridging the language sciences and cognitive neurosciences; past department head, UofA LInguistics; co-founder and past editor of the journal Cognition; recipient of the von Humboldt Senior Research Prize; recipient of multi year Harvard, Guggenheim and Ikerbasque Fellowships, He has published more than 180 articles and books, including many on formal, cognitive and neurological bases for language universals and mental representation. His current research focuses on behavioral and neurological investigations of everyday conscious experiences of language, mental representations and other natural phenomena.
Associate Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
PhD, Distinguished Professor, Psychology, University of Arizona; Associate Director, Center for Consciousness Studies; Appointments in Cognitive Science, Neuroscience and Anesthesiology. Allen’s research concentrates on the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders and in identifying risk factors for depression using electroencephalographic and autonomic psychophysiological measures, especially EEG asymmetry, resting state fMRI connectivity and cardiac vagal control. Research studies include collaboration with UA Anesthesiology and the use of Transcranial Ultrasound as a tool to alter mood and cognition.
Co-Chair Science of Consciousness Conference Committee
Director, Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan, Neurosurgery
Executive Director, Translational Research, Office of Research Executive Director, Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, Medical School Director, Center for Consciousness Science Bert N. La Du Professor and Associate Chair of Anesthesiology Research Associate Professor, Department of Neurosurgery
Co-Founder, Center for CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES, Tucson
Professor of Philosophy, New York University; Director, Centre for Consciousness, ARC Federation Fellow; Australian National University, Canberra,
Currently affiliated with Australian National University and New York University, Department of Philosophy; co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at NYU. Co-director of PhilPapers; co-founded Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness; Former Director, Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona. Faculty positions included, UC Santa Cruz, University of Arizona, Australian National University. PhD, Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Indiana University; McDonnell Fellow at Washington University; Rhodes Scholar in Pure Maths and Computer Science at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Chalmers’s writings include: Philosophy of Mind; The Conscious Mind; The Character of Consciousness; Constructing the World; Mind and Consciousness; Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness.
