Ken Nakayama's Career and 80th Birthday Celebration

VSS | May 20, 2020


Symposium (2-4:30 pm)

The Story of Vision Science through Autobiography

In celebration of the 80th birthday of Ken Nakayama, a VSS founder, we will be holding a satellite event on the Wednesday afternoon after the VSS conference to bring the VSS community together in a fun and relaxed setting to learn about vision research through historical and personal perspectives. The event will consist of a set of talks that will weave together the narratives and personal perspectives of some of the pioneers of vision sciences. The speakers will have the opportunity to share the experiences that shaped their scientific lives, the questions and scientific challenges they faced at pivotal moments of their careers, and the wisdom and guiding philosophy they have gained through working with mentors, colleagues, and students. Each speaker will be invited to structure their presentation as they see to be most effective, with the goals of enlivening, entertaining and offering distinctly informative glimpses of how science developed for each of them. We trust that this event will offer younger aspiring scientists a better understanding of how a fulfilling scientific life has been guided by memorable or influential people, guiding ideas, nagging questions, anecdotes, research strategies, new technology, and serendipity.

This event is free of charge and open to the entire VSS community. Registration is not needed.

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Invited speakers and talks:

Why is the Ventral Visual Pathway Organized the Way It Is?

Nancy Kanwisher (MIT)

Vision, the consummate trickster

Patrick Cavanagh (Dartmouth College and Glendon College)

A century (plus) of eye movements: Seeing through the mirrors, plaster and coils

Eileen Kowler (Rutgers University)

Linking neuronal activity to motion perception: lessons learned from animal studies

Tatiana Pasternak (University of Rochester)

Incisive experiments without incision

Donald MacLeod (Emeritus Professor, UC San Diego)

My story

Ken Nakayama (Emeritus Professor, Harvard)

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Reception (6-7 pm) and Dinner (7-10 pm)

Reception and dinner banquet will be held on the Breck outdoor deck at Trade Winds Island Grand Resort. This event is open to the entire VSS community. There will be a registration fee to cover the cost of this event.

Early registration fee - must be received by April 1 - $125

Registration fee after April 1 - $175


The organizers: Joo-Hyun Song, Frank Tong and Yaoda Xu

Email Yaoda Xu for questions.