The talk will run from 7:30—8:30pm on Thursday, May 2 in the Berkeley City College basement auditorium. The reception will begin at 7pm with light refreshments. Dr. Koch will be around to meet people and talk before the lecture begins so please come have a cup of coffee and mingle.
Born in the American Midwest, Christof Koch grew up in Holland, Germany, Canada, and Morocco. He studied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Tübingen in Germany and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1982. After 4 years at MIT, he joined the California Institute of Technology as a Professor in Biology and Engineering. His research area is the biophysics of nerve cells, and the neuronal and computational basis of visual perception, attention, and consciousness. In 2011, he became the Chief Scientific Officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, where he leads a ten year, large-scale, high through-put effort to build brain observatories to map, analyze and understand the cerebral cortex. Together with his long-time collaborator, Francis Crick, Christof pioneered the scientific study of consciousness. His latest book is Consciousness – Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist.
The Science Seminar Series invites distinguished speakers from diverse areas of scientific research to speak about their fields. These talks are presented in conjunction with the Berkeley City College Science Club and sponsored in part by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. All of the seminars are open to the public and have covered topics such as stem cell research potential and policy, the neuroscience of consciousness, energy policy and models of climate change.