Graybiel to deliver Killian Lecture
Ann M. Graybiel, the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroanatomy in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, will give the 2003 Killian Award lecture "The Robot Within Us: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Habit Formation" on Monday, March 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 10-250. Her award was announced last spring (see MIT Tech Talk, May 22, 2002).
Graybiel and her group made the pioneering discovery of the fundamental architecture of the large forebrain region known as the basal ganglia and delineated the neurochemical organization of the system of neurotransmitters there. Her lecture will focus on the habit system of the brain and our ability to switch from conscious activity to nearly non-conscious behavior.
Panel on solar power scheduled for March 19
Three perspectives on solar power will be discussed in a presentation on Wednesday, March 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 34-101.
Dan Reicher, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy and now executive vice president at Northern Power Systems, will discuss "Solar Power and the Hydrogen Economy." Edward Kern, a research engineer in the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE), will review "New England Solar Power Systems and Applications." Professor of Mechanical Engineering Emanuel Sachs will speak on "Inventing and Producing Solar Cells."
Sponsors of the lecture are the Environmental Programs Office, LFEE, the Environmental Programs Task Force and the Working Group on Recycling.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 12, 2003.
