NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY
WITS NeuRL
BRAIN MATTERS SEMINARS
The past, present and future of
Neuroscience in southern Africa
THE LAUNCH
The representation from Wits and JIAS
LAUNCH
SUMMARY
Willem Hendrik Gipsen, Dr
Prof Willem Hendrik Gispen Willem Hendrik Gispen (1943) is Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience and former Vice- Chancellor of Utrecht University. His research centres on animal behaviour; neuropeptides; neural and synaptic plasticity; and neural damage and repair in diabetes and aging.
Introduction
The Brain Matters Seminar Series, emanating from the JIAS Colloquium on ‘Why The Brain Matters’, was launched at the School of Public Health of the University of the Witwatersrand on 23 March 2017. The event was attended by neuropsychologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, radiologists, biomedical engineers, epidemiologists, neurosurgeons, neurologists, as well as faculty and students from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria.
The launch was chaired by Prof Linda Richter, Director of the NRF-DST Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Human Development at Wits University. Prof Peter Vale, the previous director of JIAS, gave an overview of the Colloquium and its aftermath.
The keynote address was delivered by Prof Willem Hendrik Gispen of Utrecht University, former president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, and convener of the Colloquium. He also presented copies of the final Colloquium report to Dr Tanya Calvey of the Wits School of Anatomical Sciences and Dr Sahba Besharati of the CoE in Human Development, organisers of the Seminar Series and participants in the Colloquium. Lastly, Drs Calvey and Besharati gave a presentation on the purpose of the seminar series to official launch its beginning.