A marriage between physics and neuroscience
This year’s Richard R. Ernst Lecture will be given by Kâmil Uğurbil, professor of radiology, neuroscience and medicine at the University of Minnesota. The physicist works with ultra-powerful magnets, which he uses to pursue his ambitious goal of mapping the brain in a way similar to the Human Genome Project.
Kâmil Uğurbil works with magnets – extremely big ones. His Center for Magnetic Resonance Research currently has the world’s largest: a 10.5 Tesla magnet used for whole-body imaging was transported to the University of Minnesota from the UK last December. Uğurbil wants to use the 110-ton giant to image the brain in particular, as he is one of two project heads for the external page Human Connectome Project, part of a US initiative to research the human brain. The goal of the initiative is to fully map brain regions, their functions and the links between them.
Using the most powerful magnets in the world, Uğurbil, who works at the intersection of physics and neuroscience, will create high-resolution brain scans. Once operational, the 10.5 Tesla magnet will generate images with a resolution of a fraction of a cubic millimetre. Even with the most powerful magnetic resonance images of 7 Tesla, a resolution of only one cubic millimetre was possible, which is space for about 80,000 neurons. Uğurbil intends to research not only the structure and function of the healthy brain, but also attempt to gain a better understanding of brain diseases such as dementia, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s.
The 65-year-old began his academic career at Robert College, an American institution in Istanbul, before moving to the US to study physics. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1971 from Columbia University and a PhD in chemical physics in 1977. The scientist with roots in Turkey has taught and researched at the University of Minnesota since 1982, with a period as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen from 2003 to 2008. He has headed the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at the University of Minnesota since 1991.
The Richard R. Ernst lecture has been held annually in honour of the 1991 Nobel Prize laureate since 2009. It aims to promote an interchange between research and the public and raise awareness of future key issues. During the event, Uğurbil will be presented with the Richard R. Ernst Medal for his societal and scientific contributions.
Richard R. Ernst Lecture 2014
Prof. Dr. Kâmil Uğurbil ‘Towards understanding the human brain: a marriage between physics and neuroscience’.
Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 4:00 pm, ETH Zurich, main building, Rämistrasse 101, Auditorium Maximum. Doors open at 3:30 pm. Admission is free.
The lecture will be followed by a podium discussion, ‘Physical measurements and their interpretation in terms of brain function’. In addition to the speaker, the debate will include Richard R. Ernst, emeritus professor at ETH Zurich, Prof. Anton Valavanis, University Hospital Zurich, and Prof. Klaas Prüssmann, ETH Zurich.
For more information, visit www.lpc.ethz.ch/richard-ernst-lecture/index