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Olaf Sporns - dean's introduction

The brain has been described as one of nature’s greatest mysteries. Molecular biologist James Crick called the brain “the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.” From this vantage point, it is tremendously exciting to be honoring a researcher who is not only exploring that new frontier, but is bringing back information for the rest of us that will fundamentally change the way we think about the brain – and, indeed, the way we think about ourselves.

The 2008 Distinguished Faculty Award winner, Prof. Olaf Sporns, was born in Germany, and originally came to the U.S. to pursue a doctorate in his undergraduate field, biochemistry. A chance conversation with his fellow researchers about the brain got him interested in neuroscience, and he soon delved into research that replicated the brain’s behavior using robots – robots that learned about the world via sensory processes. This early work helped chart the path of Olaf’s research to date – yet he sought more than the rewards of an independent researcher.

In 2000, after spending several years as a post-doc working on building models of the brain’s neural networks, Olaf applied for an assistant professor position here at Indiana University. Since coming to Bloomington, his work has continued to transcend the traditional boundaries of computational neuroscience.

Olaf Sporns is a dedicated teaching professional, and an inspiring speaker and mentor. As director of the undergraduate program in Psychological and Brain Sciences, Olaf has attracted remarkable students to Bloomington, and through his congenial nature, has helped students achieve beyond their initial expectations. In fact, one of his peers in the department calls him “the best undergraduate statistics teacher ever.” Though research is a crucial element of academic activity here at IU, the ability to teach – to impart knowledge to students in a way that inspires and engages – should never be underestimated, and we honor Prof. Sporns for that.

Olaf is no less accomplished in the international field of brain sciences. His work has resulted in a new view of the brain – in which the brain is not a passive processor of information, but a constant actor that is inseparable from the body of which it is a part. Rather than modeling cognition solely via computer simulations, part of Olaf’s work involves building systems that perceive their surroundings and learn from them – a process that models how the brain develops by creating itself through cycles of perception and action. His robots are wonderful to watch: There are very few people whose imaginations aren’t sparked by watching a robot walking about on its own. But what’s most important is that the robots are demonstrating new models of how our brains may work.

Olaf’s dedication to his field is unquestioned. Dozens of articles in top scientific journals, numerous book chapters, and several large grants attest to that. But Olaf has also helped create change within his discipline: In 2001, he went on record with other researchers to challenge the field of artificial intelligence to come up with robots that learn and act independently in the manner of human children. Thus was born an entirely new field called epigenetic robotics, spanning research in the developmental sciences, neuroscience, biology, robotics, and artificial intelligence, among other fields.

The upshot of Olaf’s work may, someday, result in new methods for treating brain diseases and injuries, and also may result in robots that learn and interact in sophisticated ways with people to serve common needs. It’s perhaps the latter, “science fiction”-like element that has earned Olaf extensive coverage in popular-science magazines; one Internet technology blog even named him one of the 100 most influential young scientists in the world.

But whether it’s debating the meaning of new findings at international conferences, or helping an undergraduate raise his or her grade in a statistics course, Olaf Sporns clearly reflects the best qualities of Indiana University’s world-renowned faculty. I am honored tonight to introduce the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Award winner, Prof. Olaf Sporns.