Pre-conference session
Pre-conference Activity: December 10th 2024 at 3:00pm CET
Harnessing the simultaneous booms of AI and neurotechnology: how the brain economy can guide us toward global flourishing
Moderator
Rym Ayadi
President Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA), Director, EU-Mediterranean and African Network for Economic Studies (EMANESProfessor Rym Ayadi is the Founder and President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA). She is Founder and Director of the Euro-Mediterranean and African Network for Economic Studies (EMANES). She is Senior Advisor at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); Professor at the Bayes Business School, City University of London; and Member of the Centre for Banking Research (CBR); Academic member and Chair (2018-present) of the European Banking Authority – Banking Stakeholders Group (EBA- BSG). She is also Associated Scholar at the Centre for Relationship Banking and Economics (CERBE) at LUMSA University in Rome.
Speakers
John Ngai
Director, NIH BRAIN InitiativeJohn Ngai, Ph.D., is the Director of the NIH’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies®(BRAIN) Initiative. Dr. Ngai earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Pomona College, Claremont, California, and Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons before starting his faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley. Over 27 years as a Berkeley faculty member, Dr. Ngai trained 20 undergraduate students, 24 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows in addition to teaching well over 1,000 students in the classroom. His work has led to publications in the field’s most prestigious journals as well as numerous U.S. and international patents. Dr. Ngai has received many awards including from the Sloan Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. As a faculty member, Dr. Ngai served as the director of Berkeley’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, and Functional Genomics Laboratory. He also provided extensive service on NIH study sections, councils and steering groups, including as previous co-chair of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Consortium Steering Group. Dr. Ngai oversees the long- term strategy and day-to-day operations of the NIH BRAIN Initiative as it strives to revolutionize our understanding of the brain in both health and disease.
Harris Eyre
Lead and Senior Fellow, Neuro-Policy, Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy; Advisor, EMEA ; Executive Director, Brain Capital AllianceDr. Eyre is a scholar and entrepreneur dedicated to fostering awareness, data, tools and leadership for the brain-positive economic transformation aka the brain economy. To do this, he works across public, non-profit, and private sectors. He also serves as a senior fellow at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and provides advisory expertise to organizations such as the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association, the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Cancer Neuroscience Program, the Business Collaborative for Brain Health, the Latin American Brain
Health Institute (BrainLat), and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. He is an adjunct professor with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Behnaam Aazhang
Director, Neuroengineering Initiative, Rice UniversityBehnaam Aazhang PhD is a Fellow of IEEE and AAAS, and a distinguished lecturer of IEEE Communication Society. He received his B.S. (with highest honors), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in
Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1981, 1983, and 1986, respectively. From 1981 to 1985, he was a Research Assistant in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois. In August 1985, he joined the faculty of Rice University, Houston, Texas, where he is now the J.S. Abercrombie Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Center for Neuroengineering, a multi-university research center in Houston, Texas. From 2006 till 2014, he held an Academy of Finland Distinguished Visiting Professorship appointment (FiDiPro) at the University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Dr. Aazhang is a Fellow of IEEE and AAAS, a distinguished lecturer of IEEE Communication Society.
He received an Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Oulu, Finland (the highest honor that the university can bestow) in 2017 and IEEE ComSoc CTTC Outstanding Service Award “For innovative leadership that elevated the success of the Communication Theory Workshop” in 2016. He is a recipient of 2004 IEEE Communication Society’s Stephen O. Rice best paper award for a paper with A. Sendonaris and E. Erkip. In addition, Sendonaris, Erkip, and Aazhang received IEEE Communication Society’s 2013 Advances in Communication Award for the same paper. He has been listed in the Thomson-ISI Highly Cited Researchers and has been keynote and plenary speaker of several conferences. His research interests are signal and data processing, information theory, dynamical systems, and their applications to neuro- engineering with focus areas in (i) understanding neuronal circuits connectivity and the impact of learning on connectivity (ii) developing minimally invasive and non-invasive real-time closed- loop stimulation of neuronal systems to mitigate disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson, depression, obesity, and mild traumatic brain injury (iii) developing a patient-specific multisite wireless monitoring and pacing system with temporal and spatial precision to restore the healthy function of a diseased heart, (iv) developing algorithms to detect, predict, and prevent security breaches in cloud computing and storage systems.
Boniface Kakhobwe
Early Childhood Development (ECD) Specialist, UNICEF Headquarters, New YorkA professional with nearly 25 years’ work experience in leading and managing program development and implementation, Mr.Kakhobwe is an expert in national policy development and implementation, systems development and strengthening, resource mobilization and partnerships development. An acknowledged advocate for early childhood development, education, health, child protection, social protection and human rights, he has extensive experience working in and with a range of institutions including the United Nations, governments, national and international non-governmental organisations, donors, private foundations, the private sector and communities.
Amy Kruse
General Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Satori NeuroDr. Amy Kruse leads Satori Neuro, a new venture fund focused on mental health, neurotechnology, and human flourishing. Amy leverages her decades of experience as a neuroscientist and her prior roles as an operator and a government program manager to discover transformational companies addressing the largest mental health, brain health, and wellness challenges and opportunities. Prior to Satori Neuro, Amy was a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she led the fund’s early-stage life sciences investments in human augmentation and longevity. She previously served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Optios and as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Cubic Global Defense. Early in her career, Amy served as a government civilian program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she created and oversaw the Agency’s first performance- oriented neuroscience programs. Dr. Kruse collaborates with the Capital Factory in Texas, BrainMind ecosystem, OneMind Accelerator and serves on an oversight committee for NIH Blueprint MedTech. She is a frequent contributor to defense panels and advisory boards for organizations including DARPA, the National Academies, and the Defense Science Board. She is also the author of numerous scientific papers, chapters and articles, as well as on the boards of several Prime Movers Lab and Satori Neuro and portfolio companies.