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Celebrating 30 years of brain images, in Montreal

The BIC was named after the McConnell Family Foundation in 1984, at the initiative of our founding Director, Dr. William Feindel (1918-2014 - Rememberance from Prof. Rolando del Maestro). This year, we are celebrating his vision and the past and next 30 years of neuroimaging research at ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ. The BIC 30th anniversary was celebrated on February 11, 2015 by its past and present faculty, core staff and trainees and users, together with international speakers and program leaders in Canada, Europe and the USA, including the principal investigators and coordinators for the Human Connectome (USA) and Human Brain (European Union) large-scale projects.

The 350 attendees definitely made this event a day to remember.

When: February 11, 2015 - 08H30 - 18H00 (+ after-party!) 

Where: Montreal Neurological Institute, 3801 University St, Montreal

program BIC30.pdf

High-resolution event poster

Browse the photo album

Post on our anniversary message board now!

Program highlights

David Van Essen, Ph.D. - Washington University (St Louis, USA)

Principal Investigator,

Dr. Van Essen is Alumni Endowed Professor of Neurobiology in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University. He is a Principal Investigator (PI) for the Human Connectome Project, a $40M initiative of the NIH to trace human brain’s connections from a large cohort of participants. The data collected is made freely available to the scientific community using a powerful, user-friendly informatics platform.  Dr. Van Essen is responsible for overall management of the consortium’s efforts as a whole. He has more than two decades of international leadership in mapping structure and function of the human and primate cerebral cortex.

While his background is in anatomical and physiological studies on nonhuman primates, his research over the past decade has focused increasingly on: development of brain-mapping software; development of neuroinformatics tools and promulgation of their use through outreach efforts; studies of human brain structure in health, disease, and development; development and promulgation of surface-based atlases that facilitate comparisons across individuals and across data types; tractography, functional connectivity, and cross-modal comparisons.

Henry Markram, Ph.D. – Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland)

Director, The Blue Brain Project, and Coordinator,

Henry Markram is the director of the Blue Brain Project and coordinator of the Human Brain Project at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he is a professor of neuroscience. He is a founder of the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL. The Human Brain Project aims to construct a computerized simulation of the brain. The HBP was selected in January 2013 as one of the European Commission's Future Emerging Technologies Flagship projects, with a grant of more than 1 billion euros over the next 10 years. The initiative involves researchers in 80 institutions across Europe - from biologists, neurobiologists and biochemists to computer scientists and engineers. Markram believes the HBP may lead not only to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the brain and its illnesses but also to innovative concepts for designing computers and robots. Markram also aims for the Human Brain Project to spur a new approach to mental health globally.Henry Markram, Ph.D. – Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland).

Robert J Zatorre, Ph.D. – , ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

Robert Zatorre is a world-leading cognitive neuroscientist who has published more than 200 articles, including in major journals such as Nature and Science. His research explores the functional and structural organization of the human brain, with special emphasis on two complex and characteristically human abilities: speech and music. He and his collaborators have published on topics including structure and function of the human auditory cortex, pitch perception, auditory spatial processing, musical imagery, music and emotion, and brain plasticity in the blind and deaf. He has held a James-³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ chair in Neuroscience since 2005. In 2006 he became the founding co-director of the international laboratory for . In 2011 he was awarded the IPSEN foundation prize in neuronal plasticity and in 2013, he won the Knowles prize in hearing research. He plays the organ when time permits.