Laboratory staffers to speak on issues of the brain Wednesday and Friday

Contact: Michael Carlson, mcarlson@lanl.gov, (505) 665-4610

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 13, 2001 -- Two staff members at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory will explore the complexities of the human brain this week in two separate lectures at the Laboratory’s Bradbury Science Museum as part of National Brain Awareness Week that began Monday.

The museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos; both events are open to the public.

John George will discuss several methods of brain imaging and show the results of such measurements at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. A 19-year employee with the Laboratory, George’s work has focused on experimental studies of the brain networks that support vision and other forms of neural information processing.

"I’ve always been interested in how thought processes occur and how vision works," said George.

George has a doctoral degree in physiology and biophysics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

From 4 to 5 p.m. Friday, David Rector will talk to children in grades three through six about the brain and how it works. He will show them different types of brains, microscope slides of brain cells and a plaster eyeball that reacts to light.

Rector graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from University of California, Davis, and has a doctoral degree in neuroscience from UCLA. His doctoral work focused specifically on sudden infant death syndrome, investigating how the brain controls breathing, especially during different sleep states.

"I enjoy talking with elementary and high school kids about the brain, an organ that is the most complicated and sophisticated single known object in the universe, and the most important organ in their body," said Rector.

Regular museum hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Hours will be extended for the Wednesday lecture. There is no admission charge to the museum.

Registration is not required for either event.

For more information, call Pat Berger at 665-0896.

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