Cajal On Consciousness

PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT
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"CAJAL ON CONSCIOUSNESS"

International centennial conference commemorating the publication of
"Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y los Vertebrados", by Santiago Ram�n
y Cajal (1899), to be held in Zaragoza (Spain):

Monday, November 29 - Wednesday, December 1, 1999
Web: http://cajal.unizar.es

"Textura del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y los Vertebrados", published in
1899 by Santiago Ram�n y Cajal (Madrid, N. Moya: 1899-1904), is the
masterpiece of Spanish science and perhaps the most influential work in the
history of the Neurosciences. To commemorate the centennial of its
publication, the organizing Aragonese institutions are re-editing the book
and holding a public discussion on Cajal�s seminal contributions to
contemporary science. In this regard, and in collaboration with
distinguished Spanish scientists, a dialogue with the most relevant figures
of the international scientific community, from the Neurosciences as well
as from other disciplines, has been organized. The topic chosen for the
debate, the scientific approach to consciousness, is a leit motiv which
continually underlies Cajal�s own work, and it has become a focal point for
interdisciplinary dialogue at the turn of the millennium. Undoubtedly, it is
one of the perennial engines of scientific progress --the ambition to
understand the nature of our own consciousness.
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TENTATIVE PROGRAM

OPENING SESSION (Monday 29/11/99)
David Chalmers (Arizona University)
Ilya Prigogine (Universit� Libre de Bruxelles)

MIND AND MATTER (Tuesday 30/11/99)
Murray Gell-Mann (Santa Fe Institute)
Harold J. Morowitz (Krasnow Institute, George Mason University)

THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
Lynn Margulis (University of Massachusetts)
Fran�ois Jacob (Institut Pasteur)

THE NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE
Terrence Sejnowsky (Salk Institute for Biological Studies)
Lotfi A. Zadeh (University of California at Berkeley)
Roger Penrose (University of Oxford)

ROUND TABLE: Natural Sciences and Consciousness: Filling in a Historical Gap?

THE "DOCTRINE OF THE NEURON" REVISITED (Wednesday 1/12/99)
Jean-Pierre Changeux (Institut Pasteur)
Eric Kandel (Columbia University)

INFORMATION PROCESSING AND BRAIN ARCHITECTURE
Torsten Wiesel (Rockefeller University)
Wolf Singer (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research)
Petra Stoerig (University of Dusseldorf)

THE EMERGENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Christof Koch (California Institute of Technology)
Stuart Hameroff (Center for Consciousness Studies)
Gerald Edelman (The Neurosciences Institute)

ROUND TABLE: Envisioning Future Breakthroughs

CLOSING ADDRESS
Floyd E. Bloom (Scripps Research Institute, Editor of "Science")
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SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Carlos Belmonte (Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Alicante)
Alberto Ferr�s (Instituto Ram�n y Cajal-CSIC)
Alberto Galindo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Antonio Garc�a Bellido (Centro de Biolog�a Molecular Severo Ochoa)
Angel Mart�n Municio (Real Academia de Ciencias F�sicas y Naturales)
Federico Mayor Zaragoza (UNESCO)
Juan P�rez Mercader (Laboratorio de Astrof�sica y F�sica Fundamental, INTA)
Alberto Portera (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Santiago Ram�n y Cajal Ag�eras (Cl�nica Puerta de Hierro)
Santiago Ram�n y Cajal Junquera (Universidad de Zaragoza)
Javier Sadaba (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Margarita Salas (Centro de Biolog�a Molecular Severo Ochoa)
Constantino Sotelo (INSERM, Paris)
Enric Trillas (Universidad Polit�cnica de Madrid)

CO-CHAIRS: Constantino Sotelo, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Alberto Portera

SCIENTIFIC SECRETARIAT
Pedro C. Marijuan
Departamento de Ingenier�a Electr�nica y Comunicaciones
Centro Polit�cnico Superior, Universidad de Zaragoza
Zaragoza 50015, Spain
Tel. (34) 976 761 927 or 976 761 948. Fax (34) 976 762 111
marijuan@posta.unizar.es
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ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS

DIPUTACION GENERAL DE ARAGON
UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA
sponsored by IBERCAJA and CAI
with the scientific collaboration of the Instituto Ram�n y Cajal (Madrid), and
the Center for Consciousness Studies (Arizona)

REGISTRATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION
Technical Secretariat: DI&CO
Paseo Sagasta 19, enlo. dcha.
Zaragoza 50008, Spain
Tel. (34) 976 211 748 or 976 229 952. Fax (34) 976 212 959
E-mail: dico@dico.es
Web: http://cajal.unizar.es
Received on Wed Mar 10 15:03:42 1999