Carney Conversations is a series of discussions with world-class experts on intriguing topics in brain science — from addiction to the mysteries of the adolescent brain to robotics and innovation.
The Future of Brain Science: Undergraduate Brain Research at Brown
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Flavia Maria Galeazzi (’26)
- Liana Lewis (’25)
- Nikolai Rogalinski (’24)
Pain and Perception
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Ziya L. Gokaslan, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School
- Frederike Petzschner, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and and co-director of the Carney Brainstorm Program
More Human Than Human? - ChatGPT
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Ellie Pavlick, Manning Assistant Professor of Computer Science
- Thomas Serre, Associate Director of the Center for Computational Brain Science, Director for the Center for Computation and Visualization, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Professor of Computer Science
Can a drug used to treat HIV also treat Alzheimer's?
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Meghan Riddle, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Clinician Educator at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Interim Director for the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital
- John Sedivy, Ph.D., the Hermon C. Bumpus Professor of Biology and Associate Dean and Director of the Center for the Biology of Aging at Brown University.
Health disparities in the brain
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Monica Rivera-Mindt, Professor of Psychology, Fordham University; President of the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society
- Diana Grigsby, Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences and of Epidemiology, Brown University
The science of sleep and why slumber might rebalance your brain and behavior
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Mary Carskadon, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
- Richard Millman, Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Medicine
How we decide to love
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Debbie Yee, Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences
- Joey Heffner, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology
Getting a jump on Alzheimer’s disease
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Yu-Wen Alvin Huang, GLF Translational Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
- Hwamee Oh, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences
How uncertainty impacts decision-making
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Emily Oster, Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Economics
- Amitai Shenhav, Assistant Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences
Risk, Failure, & Success: Finding the right balance
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Nancy Zimmerman, a 1985 Brown graduate, a trustee of the University’s Corporation, and the co-founder and managing partner of Bracebridge Capital
- Adam Korn, a 1997 Brown graduate and chief information officer at Sixth Street Partners
The next generation of scientists on the future of brain science
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Kaitlyn Hajdarovic, Ph.D. candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program
- Marc Powell, a 2021 graduate of Brown's Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery
- Jae-Young Son, Ph.D. candidate in cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences
CRISPR and the role of gene editing in neuroscience
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest:
- Kate O’Connor-Giles, Provost’s Associate Professor of Brain Science, Brown University
From a Brown dorm room to a potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Josh Cohen, Brown alumnus and co-founder/co-CEO of Amylyx
- Justin Klee, Brown alumnus and co-founder/co-CEO of Amylyx
COVID-19 and the brain
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest:
- Dr. Karen Furie, Samuel I. Kennison, M.D., and Bertha S. Kennison Professor of Clinical Neuroscience; Chair of Neurology at Brown University
From idea inception to real-world solutions
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest:
- William Martin, Ph.D. ’95, Global Therapeutic Area Head of Neuroscienc, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
How the brain gets things done
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest:
- David Badre, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
Making advances in Alzheimer’s research from the bench to the bedside
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Dr. Stephen Salloway, Martin M. Zucker Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University; Director of Neurology and the Memory and Aging Program, Butler Hospital
- Ashley Webb, Richard and Edna Salomon Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University
Restorative Neurotechnology
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Dr. Leigh Hochberg, Professor of Engineering, Brown University
- David Borton, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Brown University
Computational approaches for EEG/MEG brain recordings
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Stephanie Jones, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Brown University
- Frederike Petzschner, Carney Institute Fellow in the Center for Computational Brain Science
How emotions can foster disease prevention behaviors during COVID-19
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest: Oriel FeldmanHall, Manning Assistant Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
Resources: Perspective: Emotional appeals increase social distancing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic
Humans to robots
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest: Stefanie Tellex, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Brown University
What can drunk flies tell us about addiction?
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest: Karla Kaun, Robert and Nancy Carney Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
What are they thinking? Decision making and the adolescent brain
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest: Beatriz Luna, Staunton Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics; Professor of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
Resources: CerebroSinFiltro, a project referenced during the discussion.
How rule-breaking and innovation feed new knowledge
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guest: Stefan McDonough, a 1990 graduate of Brown University and executive director of genetics at Pfizer
How does SARS-CoV-2 target the sense of smell?
Moderators:
- Diane Lipscombe, Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science
- Christopher Moore, Associate Director, Carney Institute
Guests:
- Gilad Barnea, Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science; Director, Carney's Center for the Neurobiology of Cells and Circuits
- Alexander Fleischmann, Provost's Associate Professor of Brain Science, Brown University